Aura Rangers
by Red Dargon
Summary: Centuries ago, mankind fought a war of survival against the Creatures of Grimm, and managed to seal them away after much fighting. However, the Grimm have started to resurface again, and it is up to four youths who have awakened the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to defend mankind from this returning threat. They are the... Aura Rangers!
1. Hunt 1: Aura Awakening

A/N: Well, my first fanfic! Hopefully I can actually finish this.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or Power Rangers

 _Several centuries ago…_

There was fire and carnage everywhere. Bodies of soldiers littered the ground, while the bodies of their foes quickly fell to droves of other soldiers and dissolved into the air just as quickly. The fighting was merciless, with neither side giving any mercy to the other. In the centre of it all, the battle to decide the fate of humanity raged on.

Four figures cloaked in blue, brown, green and purple were locked in fierce combat with a fifth figure cloaked in black. The four attacked without abandon, swinging their weapons in coordinated manners that prevented any escape. However, despite their attacks striking, the black figure still stood, shrugging off their attacks like they were nothing.

The brown figure, frustrated at this, decided to go in for a lunge with her staff's fire crystal right into the black figure's heart, trying to burn right through it, despite her comrades telling her to not to do anything rash.

They were right. The black figure didn't even bother to dodge, just grabbing onto the staff, staring into the brown figure's stunned look in her eyes before grabbing her face and channelling some sort of energy into it while slamming her down.

The brown figure struggled to get up, only to look in horror as she saw her body slowly being petrified before her eyes.

The black figure spoke, "One down, three more to capture."

The remaining three looked at one another and nodded. Their eyes started to glow, and their bodies started to hover over the black figure as they started to channel the very elements themselves.

The black figure was unimpressed: "Fancy party tricks, but they can't kill me."

The blue figure simple stated: "We _aren't_ trying to kill you."

The black figure can only begin to wonder what they are talking about before great vines sprouted out from the ground, restraining the black figure as the blue figure's hand started to glow, with a single swing, she yells out:

" **Aura Art: Spatial Rift!** "

A brief image of a rune comprised of a pentagon, two smaller pentagons set inside one after the other and a dot in the centre appeared before space itself split apart behind the black figure, and before she could break free from her bonds, the purple figure rushed in a blink of an eye, releasing a large blast of flame that incinerated the vines, and proceeded to drive her fist into the black figure's face throwing her back into the spatial rift.

Just as the black figure was swallowed up by the rift, she said one thing.

"In due time, I shall return."

The rift closed, the armies of beasts under the black figure's command all dissolved, their link to the black figure cut. The soldiers are too tired to even cheer, just collapsing onto the ground for a much needed rest.

The three figures themselves, having completely drained themselves in their final attack collapse onto the ground, dying. The brown figure, still conscious as her face began to petrify, could only look on as her comrades began to die, and in her last moments before she was fully petrified, only felt one thing.

Anger.

* * *

 _Centuries ago, mankind was threatened by the dark force known as the Creatures of Grimm, shadowy creatures that specifically hunted down humans. However, after a great conflict against them, they were defeated and their master sealed away. Humanity was at peace._

 _This peace wouldn't last though, as the Grimm have re-emerged after centuries of dormancy, attacking the city of Vale. To combat this threat, four youths have banded together and awakened the power of their souls, using their powers to fight off the Grimm, and save mankind from them once and for all. Together, they are the…_

 **Aura Rangers!**

 **Hunt 1: Aura Awakening**

 _Present Day_

The battlefield littered with corpses was gone, now replaced with the bright and shining city of Vale, built shortly after the battle centuries ago to celebrate the triumph of humanity that day. In the middle of the city lay Beacon Academy, a prestigious boarding school for youths all over the country, currently run by the enigmatic Professor Ozpin.

In the Dark Aroma, a nearby café with a modern chic design popular with students from the Academy, two girls are sitting at a table, chatting things up.

"Amazing how you got into Beacon so early sis!" A blonde bombshell loudly proclaimed through mouthfuls of cake.

"Aww, it's no big deal Yang. I mean, all I did was impress on headmaster Ozpin when I met up with him," Yang's younger half-sister Ruby said rather sheepishly.

"Hey, he must have a good reason for bringing you here, so be proud of it!" Yang continued to say. "By the way, are you going to order something?"

"Yeah, your coffee and cake really do look good. No wonder this place is so popular." Ruby said, observing the crowded surroundings. Deciding on buying something, she gets up to queue at the counter, only for her to bump into someone else.

"Hey! Look where you're going!" The white haired student spouted out.

"Aah! Sorry!"

"Sorry!? While I'm mostly unharmed, can you imagine what would happen if you bumped into something potentially more dangerous like a boxful of Dust, or maybe a frail old lady? I don't want a sorry, I want you to be more careful in the future!"

While Ruby was usually a somewhat quiet sort around people, she had limits. "Well, excuse me, princess!"

Noticing the commotion, a dark haired student reading a book looks up, before walking up to the arguing pair.

"It's Heiress, actually."

Ruby just made a confused surprised sound at that.

"Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, most well known for producing much of the world's Dust supply."

Weiss stuck her nose up. "Good. Someone who recognises me."

Blake wasn't done though, "They are also infamous for exploiting poor workers and damaging environments through strip mining operations."

It was Weiss's turn to be surprised. "What!? How dare you!" Weiss said as she stormed off to the queue.

Ruby can only giggle as this situation plays out. But as she turned around to thank the dark haired girl, she seemingly vanished in the crowd of students.

Normally, after that, Ruby would continue queueing for her coffee and cake, return to Yang to enjoy her food, then return home to prepare for studying in Beacon.

However, this peace is not meant to last.

Suddenly, dark rifts began to appear over the Dark Aroma ominously. Most students in the area either begin to stare at this strange phenomenon, while others just simply started to hightail it out of there.

Soon enough, strange, horrifying wolf-like creatures start to fall out of the rifts. These creatures have fur as black as the blackest night and bone protrusions around, most prominently in the form of a mask that shows two glowing red eyes. Now just about everyone starts to hightail it out of the Dark Aroma.

This doesn't stop these creatures from attacking whoever is still struggling to get out of the coffee house, slashing at them as the students and baristas dodge and run as best they can. One manages to pin down a blond, blue eyed boy on the ground. His reaction?

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Just about everyone hers the ear piercing scream, causing everyone instinctively recoil from it.

" _There's a girl in trouble!"_ Yang thinks in her head as she prepares to go into the coffee house.

The creature having recovered from the scream proceeded to brandish its claws to drive them through the boy's heart. The boy closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

Except the claws never struck him.

Opening his eyes, he sees Yang struggling with the creature, holding its arms at bay. She looks to the boy and just says one thing.

"What are you doing?! Get out of here!"

As the boy got up, he noticed that three other individuals were also trying to fight off the creatures in the coffee house. Ruby struck quickly, using hit and run techniques to get as much attention to her while avoiding damage as well. Weiss was engaging the creatures using technical methods compared to Ruby's fast and sloppy attacks, aiming to pin and disable the creatures with arm breaks to disable them. The dark-haired girl was avoiding attention, before pouncing on targets for massive damage, before blending into the crowd of creatures again. Yang herself was just using pure brute force, hitting the creatures with all she had. The boy realising they were buying everyone time to escape, ran out as fast as possible, trying to find help for them.

However, despite their efforts, it was not enough, as the strength and numbers of the creatures overwhelmed them.

 _"No!"_

 _"Hopefully, Father will be proud of me now…"_

 _"A fitting end for me then…"_

 _"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

It would have been the end, but all of a sudden, the four girls' bodies started to glow a bright light, releasing a shockwave that knocked the creatures out of the coffee house.

Yang looked at herself, realising that her hair was freakin _glowing_! But she didn't get a chance to rest much, as one of the creatures proceeded to pounce at her. She threw a punch at the creature's head to defend herself, and sent it flying back, where it proceeded to disintegrate into nothingness.

"Holy moley… this is AWESOME!"

The dark-haired girl, recovering from the shockwave, tried to dash forward towards the creatures, only to zip ahead for a brief moment, leaving behind an afterimage of her. Disregarding just what is going on, she quickly hid, luring a creature to attack the afterimage, causing it to fade away before the girl did a devastating sneak attack on the creature, grabbing its neck and twisting with all her might, snapping it and making the creature go limp on the ground before dissolving.

Weiss just spent the whole time dazed, unsure of what is going on.

Ruby got up quickly, trying to sprint out of the coffee house to engage the creatures again, only burst forward past the creatures and almost crash into another storefront.

"WOAH!"

But her reprieve won't last long, as the creatures start to advance towards her. Thinking quickly, she decided to make use of her newfound powers, zooming all around the area striking the creatures here and there when it's safe, but they aren't doing much damage. Then, she saw both Yang and the dark-haired girl fighting off the creatures with some measure of success, but the numbers of the creatures was still too great for them to take down individually.

" _We need a plan!_ " thought Ruby.

Quickly analysing the battlefield, she noted Yang's high strength and slower speed, and the dark-haired girl's stealthiness in exchange for relative frailty. She decided to use those strengths to their advantage.

"Yang! Attack the ones following me!"

"Wha…? Oh, I get it! Understood!"

"Miss uhh…"

"Belladonna. Blake Belladonna."

"Oh! Blake! Could you use your clone thingies to confuse the enemy?"

"Got it. I'll try."

Coordinating together, Blake confused the creatures with her clones, allowing Ruby to aggro them towards her more easily, while Yang dealt the damage on them knocking them across the street. In due time, they eventually manage to finish off the creatures off, with the creatures' corpses dissolving in the air.

Before they could even sit down and contemplate on what just happened though, another bright light surrounded them and in a flash, they vanished.

* * *

"Errgh…. Where am I?" Ruby groaned out as her eyes fluttered open, her vision blurry. As her vision recovers, she notices her rather strange surroundings. It seemed to be a rather high-tech command centre of some sort in a pentagonal shape, with screens covering the walls providing all sorts of data, and in the centre of the room, an elevated platform with a hologram of what appeared to be all of Vale. Glowing green lines traced across the room, seemingly providing power the room. Most prominently besides the central platform, were four tubes glowing red, white, black/purple and yellow, each occupying a corner of the room.

"Where are we?" Said Weiss, recovering from her previous daze.

"Oww… my entire body hurts." Yang stretched her body, trying to get the aches in her body out.

Blake just stayed silent, simply observing the surroundings.

"I see, so you are the ones who have awakened," A mysterious voice spoke from behind them.

"Aah! Who's that?" Ruby jumped in shock as the four turned around.

"I can't say I'm that surprised, especially you, Miss Rose." The figure was clad in a black suit, complete with waistcoat, with a green scarf to complete the ensemble.

"Professor Ozpin? What is going on? Why are there shadow monsters? Why are you here? WHY DO WE HAVE SUPERPOWERS?!" Ruby asked, getting progressively more and more flustered and panicky as she went on, her arms flailing wildly.

All Ozpin did in response was to hold his hand up gently and say: "Now, now, Miss Rose, I understand that you must have plenty of questions, and judging from the rest of your faces, all of you have questions." Weiss, Blake and Yang looked up at his face.

"Now, starting from the beginning. Centuries ago, mankind was at a relative sort of peace. Most were happy and prospered. However, one day, the dark creatures that you fought, known as the Creatures of Grimm, appeared in droves, destroying settlements left and right.

The Creatures of Grimm were born out of the collective dark thoughts and emotions of people, collected over the millennia. Their master, Salem is effectively humanity's 'dark side' of sorts, from wrath, happiness at misery to most importantly, self-destruction. She desires nothing more than the destruction of humanity, even if it doesn't serve her any material benefit in the end. She was eventually sealed away in a subdimension closed off from our dimension, in a final battle that happened right where Vale is standing right now.

Despite the overwhelming odds, mankind fought back. They used the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to strengthen themselves to even the odds. Those who had their Aura awakened could pull off amazing feats of strength, resilience and agility. In addition to these benefits, they could also use a 'Semblance', effectively a superpower of sorts that varied depending on the individual. I watched over these warriors all those years back, directing their efforts to defeat Salem."

Weiss spoke out. "So, what you are saying… is that the first big flash of light we had was our Aura awakening?"

Ozpin continued, "Yes. The re-emergence of the Grimm has resulted in a 'reaction' of sorts. By fighting back the Grimm in the coffee house, your actions resonated with your souls, awakening your Aura."

It was Yang's turn to ask. "So… what are we doing here?"

Ozpin was somewhat more hesitant at that question. "You… you see, that attack on the coffee house is not going to be a one-time deal. The Grimm, after centuries of being sealed away, have regained enough of their strength to start attacking. The attacks may be sporadic due to the dimensional barrier, but they will happen. To stop them, we need a group of defenders to stop them.

Blake instantly picked up on what he meant. "You mean… you want us to defend humanity?"

Ozpin nodded. "Yes. I want you all to take on the powers of warriors long past augmented with technology to defend Vale from the Grimm. I want you all to become… Aura Rangers."

Ruby just stared at Ozpin for a bit, processing what she just heard.

"You mean… we get to be SUPERHEROES?!"

"… That's one way to put it."

"YES! I'm in!" Ruby spouted out excitedly.

Ozpin looked at the four and began to speak.

"Do not mistake this as an obligation to do anything. I know that you all have lives of your own, and accepting the responsibilities of an Aura Ranger is no simple matter. You have to be prepared to… give your life to stop the Grimm from hurting anyone else. Your lives will be changed _greatly_. So I have to ask you this: are you all willing to take up the fight and hunt the Creatures of Grimm threatening us?"

Ruby reaffirmed her decision. "I know how dangerous it could be, but I can't just sit around and watch others die while I could stop them. With your equipment, I could save everyone."

Weiss thought to herself for a bit before speaking. "This is a way I could serve the world my own way. I'm in."

Yang smashed her fists together and just said: "Hey, a good opportunity to beat up stuff for a righteous cause? Count me in!"

Blake spent some time deep in thought, before saying: "The risks don't bother me. I'm in."

Ozpin gave a small smile while bringing up a case and unlocking it. "Excellent. Here are your main tools in this fight. The Aura Changers, these tap into your Aura and transform you all into Aura Rangers.

The Aura Changers were a simple design, basically a black cuboid with a button on the centre on a wristband.

The four girls took the Aura Changers, but upon putting them on, they started to glow, revealing a personalised form for each Changer as the glow wore off.

Ruby's Changer was now coloured red, with rose petal decorations layered closely, making it look like the side of a rose.

Weiss's Changer now looked like it was made from ice, even being cool to the touch. It now basically looked like a giant intricate snowflake.

Blake's Changer was strange. It now looked like a mass of shadow, complete with fuzzy edges, but it was solid to the touch.

Yang's Changer now basically looked like a mass of solidified yellow flames.

"Cool…" Ruby kept on admiring her Aura Changer.

Ozpin got her and everyone else's attention quick enough. "All you need to do to activate them is to say "Aura Form, Change!", push the central button and you will be morphed. Additionally, the Aura Changers come with 'perception filters', so only you Rangers and whoever I allow can see them, allowing you to wear them and be prepared at all times. They also obfuscate your identities to others when morphing, including surveillance equipment, so you all can morph in public without exposing yourselves, for the most part."

Weiss was still admiring her Changer as she listened. "Huh, you've made it really convenient for us."

Ozpin gave her a smile. "Well, it would be rather embarrassing should any of you get caught in an attack without your Changers, wouldn't it? Now, are there any other questions?"

Blake spoke up. "Just one thing. Just _what_ are you? You just offhandedly said that you led humanity against the Grimm _centuries_ ago. There is no way you are just an ordinary human."

Ozpin remained ever so calm. "I was wondering when any of you would ask. Suffice it to say, I'm effectively Salem's opposite. While she embodies negative traits and ideas, I embody positive ones, like justified anger over injustice, or fearing for the safety of others. It is my duty to watch over humanity and fight against Salem, and as such started Beacon to raise each generation of people right. It also helps me find prospective Rangers should Salem surface. You might even find one around the campus."

The four girls looked somewhat surprised, but not very much after learning all about the Grimm, Aura and the Rangers beforehand. Before anyone could say anything else though…

 ***BLARE! BLARE! BLARE!***

The alarm in the command centre rang out!

"There is a Grimm attack!" Ozpin said as he faced the central hologram of Vale, where a particular area was being highlighted. "It's over there!" He said as he pointed towards the highlighted area. "Prepare for teleport!"

"Prepare for teleport? Like before…" Ruby could barely complete her sentence when she and the rest of the Rangers were caught in a bright light, vanishing from the command centre.

* * *

"Oof! That was… a little rough." Ruby said as she was splayed about the ground, trying to quickly get up.

She doesn't have much time to do so though, as she heard the screams of people running off from a particular plaza in the area, which was currently populated with quite a few of the creatures they fought before. Additionally, the creature in the middle seemingly commanding them looked rather different, more looking more like a humanoid fountain than anything else. It was then that Ruby also noticed that the centre of the plaza was strangely empty, like something was removed.

The fountain monster couldn't care less about the Rangers though, since he was having too much fun wreaking havoc, using its head to fire highly pressurised jets of water to tear up the landscape as people vacated the plaza as quickly as possible.

"Hah! Take that, and that, and that! Taste my Fountainhead!" He screamed, having way too much fun at his job, until…

"Hold it!" Shouted Ruby as the Rangers made their way to the creatures and Fountainhead.

"What?! Who are you coloured misfits?!" Screamed Fountainhead as he gesticulated wildly.

"Just the mighty force that'll wipe the floor with you guys!" Yang yelled as she cracked her knuckles.

Fountainhead wasn't impressed. "Hah! Just four of you puny humans won't be able to stop us!"

Ruby looked Fountainhead in the eyes, giving a grin, and said: "Oh, we'll see about that. Rangers! It's morphin' time!"

The Rangers whipped up their Aura Changers, pushed the button, and yelled out: " **Aura Form, Change!** "

The Aura Changers glowed, covering the Rangers in light, before solidifying into a form-fitting suit of their respective colours, with a gold sash that crossed their torsos from their left shoulder to their right waist, and included a miniskirt as well. Each sash had a personalised emblem near the left shoulder, a rose for Ruby, a snowflake for Weiss, a dark black flame for Blake, and finally a burning yellow heart for Yang. Additionally, Red's suit also featured a cloak/hood on it.

Next, Ruby's helmet came on in a flourish of rose petals. It featured a black visor which slightly expanded into rounded edges at the sides, and a silver mouthplate that extended from the centre of the visor. Completing the helmet were rose petal designs on the edges of the visor, lined with gold.

Weiss's helmet came on with a flourish of snowflakes. Her visor expanded into pointed edges instead, and featured her snowflake also lined with gold emblem on each side.

Blake's helmet was formed by a mass of shadows. The visor's edges pointed upwards instead, and her visor edges were undecorated unlike the others.

Yang's helmet was formed by yellow flames. The visor flared outwards like fans, and the edges were decorated by yellow flame designs similarly lined with gold.

"Swift Justice! Aura Red!" Aura Red gave a thumbs up.

"Cooling Calm! Aura White!" Aura White gave a polite bow.

"Silent Shadows, Aura Black!" Aura Black lowered herself in a crouch, with her legs spread and one hand on the ground.

"BURNING PASSION! Auuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrra Yellow! Aura Yellow bent over a little, clenching her fist hard, before thrusting it up high in a fistpump.

"AURA RANGERS, READY!"

* **BOOM** *

An explosion broke out behind them.

"Aah! What was that!" White yelled as she flinched forward from the sound.

Her helmet crackled to life. "That would be the Aura Changers cleaning excess Aura out, it happens sometimes." Ozpin said calmly.

"Ok…" White said, disbelieving that something so corny would have an actual explanation.

"Why did we do all that?" Black asked, her helmet hiding a blush of embarrassment.

Ozpin's reply was quick. "Such posing usually pumps a Ranger up, and makes it easier for Aura to be channelled from the positive emotions involved. You'll find it to be optional later on if time is constrained."

Fountainhead was not amused by the Rangers ignoring him. "Hey! Your target is here! Beowolves! Attack!" He thrust his hand out dramatically.

As the Beowolves started to advance on the Rangers, their helmets crackled back to life.

"Oh yes, I should bring you up on the semblances that I sensed in you all. Red, yours is Speed. White, you can use different Dust compounds to fire off 'spells', for lack of a better word. Black, you can create shadow clones that can take hits for you and be used as decoys. Yellow, the more damage you take, the harder you can hit back. Understood?

The Rangers had little time to digest, but they mostly understood it from their experiences in the Dark Aroma, and rushed forward to engage the Beowolves, leaving White alone.

"What do you mean, use Dust compounds? Couldn't you have provided me with some first, I mean, why would I just be carrying Dust around me?" White complained, feeling left out of the action.

"Just… just go ahead and fight the Beowolves. I remember that you four managed to hold your own _without_ Aura for a bit." Ozpin replied, trying to be gentle, since it is her first time.

"Alright…" White said as she rushed in to join in the fight.

The fight was fierce, but with the additional power that the Aura Changers gave them, the Beowolves stood no chance, especially when Red and Black served as decoys to lure them away while both Yellow and White dealt the damage with haymakers and judo throws respectively.

Before long, the mass of Beowolves were just mangled corpses dissolving in the wind. Fountainhead was not pleased.

"What?! You dare fight us off? Well, prepare to be hosed down!" He said as he prepared his water jet attack, bombarding the Rangers, causing sparks to fly off their suits.

"Arrgh! We can't get close! What do we do?" Red yelled into her helmet comm.

"You may not be able to approach him now, but the Aura Changers have one other ability. Focus on a weapon of your choosing, the Changer will manufacture it on the spot, but it can only be used once before the weapon is bonded to you. Choose wisely." Ozpin calmly stated, unflappable as ever.

Nodding, Red focused on a weapon of her liking.

" _Something cool, powerful and like a scythe! No, a gun! A gun-scythe! Yes!_ "

The Aura Changer heeded Red's thoughts and lines stretched out of Red's hand, forming the shape of a large scythe, before a flash of light materialises it into a solid weapon, a massive scythe with a sniper rifle built into the shaft of the weapon.

"WEAPON: HIGH VELOCITY SNIPER SCYTHE CRESCENT ROSE" Beeped the Aura Changer.

"Cool…" Red said to herself as she admired the weapon for a brief moment, before collapsing it into sniper mode. "Even cooler…" Holding Crescent Rose up, she fired upon Fountainhead.

"Oww! That hurts!" He complained, waving his arms wildly again.

White started to think about her own weapon.

" _I've trained with rapiers, so that should work, and some means to channel Dust as well, since I don't really know how._ "

White's Aura Changer read her thoughts, and lines stretched out, forming a slim shaft in her hand before materialising into a weapon, an elegant rapier with ornate carvings in it, along with a revolver chamber preloaded with Dust above the handle of the weapon.

"WEAPON: MULTI ACTION DUST RAPIER MYRTENASTER" Beeped the Aura Changer.

"Impressive, construction is solid…" White gave the rapier a once over, before swinging it towards Fountainhead. She spun the revolver chamber around, "hmm… water types are weak to electric types, so how about this?" She stopped on one chamber holding what she recognised as electric dust, and pulled the trigger on the rapier. Predictably, lightning shot out of the rapier, striking Fountainhead right on the face.

"Arrgh! Anywhere but the face!" Fountainhead loudly complained.

It was Black's turn.

" _A flexible weapon, light and versatile."_

Lines of light stretched out of Black's hand, forming a long flat shape before materialising into a weapon, a rectangular sword. That is, until Black noticed an extra handle on the blade, and pulled on it, revealing the rectangular sword to actually be a sheath holding her main weapon, a katana that could fold into a pistol with a durable ribbon attached to the handle.

"WEAPON: VARIANT BALLISTIC CHAIN SCYTHE GAMBOL SHROUD"

Black looked over her weapon. "Interesting…" She then collapsed Gambol Shroud into its pistol form, noticing that it still had the blade showing, tested it out by throwing it out, holding onto the ribbon like a chain, swinging it back and forth, striking Fountainhead multiple times.

"Owww… Owww! What did I do to you guys!?"

Finally, Yellow thought about her own weapon.

" _I wanna punch things hard, Plain and simple!_ "

Lines stretched out and covered Yellow's hands, before materialising into two yellow gauntlets, with what appeared to be shotgun shells in the wrist area, loading into the gauntlets themselves.

"WEAPON: DUAL RANGED SHOT GAUNTLETS EMBER CELICA"

Yellow admired her new weapon. "Ooh baby, absolutely wonderful!" Suddenly, she leapt out towards Fountainhead, who was still recoiling from the previous three attacks, and punched him in the gut really, really, really hard.

"Woaaah!" Fountainhead went flying across the plaza. "Ok! Now I'm MAD!" He proceeded to continue firing a barrage of water jets at Aura Black, only for it to explode in a mass of clouds.

"Arrgh! Can't see anything!" Fountainhead shot water jets randomly everywhere, trying to disperse the clouds.

As the clouds dissipated, Fountainhead looked everywhere, trying to find the Rangers. What he saw shocked him deeply.

There was now a massive ice formation in front of him, with Aura Red standing on top of it.

Red glanced back behind the formation. "Yellow, ready?"

Yellow nodded back. "Ready!" She then punched the formation, shattering it and sending pieces flying towards Fountainhead.

"Oh no!" He panicked, trying to shoot down as many shards as possible, until he saw Red riding on one such shard, with Crescent Rose unfolded and its sharp edge facing him.

"Take this!" Red yelled as she rode the shard, swinging Crescent Rose across Fountainhead's body, finishing him off.

"Nooooo! Forgive me, Black Queen!" Fountainhead yelled dramatically as he fell down and exploded, leaving behind a perfectly intact fountain.

The Rangers gathered together and said in unison: "Grimm, hunted!"

* * *

Back at the command centre, the Rangers were celebrating their first win.

Yang was ecstatic. "Yeah sis! That idea to surf on the ice to get that guy was a perfect mixture of ridiculousness and awesomeness!"

Weiss was a bit more reserved in her judgement. "I agree, it was a good idea, but something more practical may have been better."

Yang seemed unamused. "Come on ice queen, we're fighting weird monsters in colourful spandex! Ridiculous and awesome should be our bread and butter!"

Weiss was indignant. "Ice… ice queen!? What kind of nickname is that?!"

Yang gave a huge grin. "One that suits you perfectly! Oh yeah! I heard something else from you in the fight. What was it? "water types are weak to electric types"? I didn't peg you as a Pokémon fan!"

Weiss was starting to get red in her cheeks. "Hey… hey! I just heard others talk about it! That's it!" She started to stomp towards Yang, wanting to give her a piece of her own mind.

"Heh! Try to catch me!" Yang taunted as she broke into a run, while Ruby giggled at this show of immaturity.

Blake looked on this scene, with a small smile on her face. Facing Ozpin, she said: "Not exactly what I would expect for the defenders of mankind."

Ozpin looked back at her. "Let them have their fun," But then, his look changed, he looked sorrowful for something. "It may not last very long." With those words, he walked away to the exit elevator.

Blake could only guess at what was going on in his mind, but she understood what he meant clearly.

* * *

In the still vacant plaza where the Rangers fought Fountainhead, a single figure walked up to the fountain that used to be Fountainhead. She was dressed in a short red dress, but her most prominent feature was the concealing helmet that she wore, completely black with an image of a Queen chess piece printed on the visor. Ruminating on the previous events in the plaza, she spoke to herself in a deeply synthesised voice.

"Activate subdimension channel."

From her point of view, the world shattered, splitting apart to reveal a black swirling mass of space, where the black figure with an ivory white face and hair stood before her. The figure started to speak.

"Greetings, Black Queen. Do you bring me good news?"

"A good day to you, Master Salem, but I don't have very good news. It looks like the headmaster has found a band of misfits to fight for him. This may take longer than expected then. No matter, I know just what to do."

Salem's face twitched at the mention of the headmaster, but she remained calm. "If that's the case, then we'll need extra firepower against them. I'm allowing you to send out Goliath class Grimm if you can muster up the negative energy to do so.

The Black Queen smiled behind her helmet. "Thank you for the assistance, Master," she cut the connection and the world reassembled before her eyes.

She looked at Beacon Academy standing proudly in the distance, and smiled to herself.

 _Four youths, bound by fate have now taken up the fight against the returning threat of the Creatures of Grimm. However, this is just the start of a long path to defeat the Grimm for good._

 _Aura Rangers Hunt 1… ends here!_


	2. Hunt 2: Dissent Among the Ranks

It was a wonderful day at Beacon Academy, a prestigious school for students all over the world that has stood for centuries. While on the outside, its architecture reflected its age with ancient design with stone bricks and whatnot, it featured a fully modernised interior well equipped for students of a modern era.

By the main building's side, lay the dormitories, with rooms of varying sizes that fit varying numbers of students. In one particular 4-person room, lay our intrepid heroes.

Ruby was sleeping in her bed, snoozing off the previous day with cute little snores, while Yang was all sprawled out over her own bed, snoring much more loudly. They would have continued to do so for an indefinite time, until…

* **BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!** *

A sharp ringing sound sounded from nowhere! To Ruby at least, since in reality, it just came from her bedside, from a particular white-haired heiress.

"Wake up Ruby! Classes start at 9! And it's already 8.30! Hurry up!"

Ruby just continued to lie down in bed.

"Nrrgh, just a few more minutes, please. Besides, I can just speed off to the classroom in a few minutes. I'll be fine!"

"What about cleaning up? You're in no shape to go to class like that you dolt!" Weiss said, pointing at Ruby's dishevelled hair and uniform laid out by the side.

Yang got up from her bed, giving a huge yawn. "Come on, ice queen, Ruby knows what she's doing. She's not a little girl, you know. You can be really hotheaded for an ice queen."

"Don't call me that. Besides, I'm just trying to show concern for Ruby, who is going to make a bad impression on everyone in school like that!"

"Hey, cool it ice queen, I lived with Ruby all her life, and I know that pushing her like that isn't really going to work. Just let her go at her own pace and she'll adapt soon enough."

Weiss huffed. "Well, if she's not going to get up, then I'm not going to be accountable for any trouble she runs into." She walked out of the room, having woken up at 7 to prepare herself properly.

Blake woke up even earlier at 6, silently leaving the room for a walk to think about the past events that transpired.

Ruby glanced at Yang, giving a tired smile. "Thanks Yang, I owe you."

Yang smiled back. "Hey, that's just what sisters do, right? Now just get some shuteye quickly." She got up and walked to the bathroom to wash up.

Ruby would have heeded Yang's words, only for their Aura Changers to start beeping, before speaking up with Ozpin's calm demeanour.

"Rangers, I apologise for the interruption, but I would like to see you all in my office during your lunch break. Please be present."

Yang looked at Ruby. "No rest for us Rangers, huh? See ya soon sis."

* * *

 _Long ago, the Creatures of Grimm threatened mankind, but they were sealed away, leaving mankind at peace. However, the Creatures of Grimm have returned, and four youths have unlocked the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to fight against them._

 _They are the…_

 **Aura Rangers!**

 **Hunt 2: Dissent Among The Ranks**

The Rangers made their way to Ozpin's office at the highest point in Beacon, a tower that stretches out beyond the rest of the campus, and featured incredibly complex designs, with massive gears turning in the background for some reason, and in the middle of it all, sat Professor Ozpin in a strangely phallic chair behind his desk, similarly decorated with gears and whatnot.

"Welcome, Rangers. I hope that your time in Beacon has been good so far?"

Ruby went first. "Well, it has been pretty good so far, but I'm kinda struggling with a few of the lessons here."

Weiss scoffed at that. "Well, maybe if you'd actually try to listen, you'd have an easier time."

"Hey!"

Before they could escalate into a full blown argument, Ozpin cut in. "I understand, after all you basically skipped two years, so you may have some things you may have difficulty with. No matter, I'll assign you to some supplementary classes to help you later on, is that alright?"

"Understood, sir!"

Weiss went next. "I appreciate you assigning us Rangers to the same room, but Ruby and Yang are just too untidy for me! I mean, they just throw their stuff all over the room! It's chaos! Additionally, I'm not sure Ruby is allowed to wear her cape with her uniform."

Yang was not amused. "Hey! It's called 'organised chaos', and besides, we mostly do it on our sides of the room, right?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "I see… while I understand your view, Yang, but I would refer if you made some sort of arrangement with Weiss before you and Ruby make your own 'modifications' to the room. Ruby is allowed to wear her cape. We appreciate individuality here in Beacon."

Ruby whispered to Yang. "Does this mean that we aren't going to make bunk beds?"

Yang whispered back. "We'll find a way, don't worry."

Blake spoke up. "Everything is fine. The other Rangers may be a little loud, but I'm used to creating privacy for myself anyway."

Finally, Yang spoke. "Everything is going pretty well, if I say so myself. It's just that it has been quiet for the past few days, if you know what I mean."

Ozpin was unamused at Yang's insinuation. "That would be a good thing, Yang. Besides, considering the difficulty of travelling across dimensions, attacks will probably be sporadic for now."

Ozpin continued. "This isn't the main reason why I've called you four though. I feel that as a team, you all need to work together. As you've demonstrated earlier, there are some kinks to work out between you all. To do this, I'm going to assign one of you as team leader."

Weiss pointed her nose up. "Great! I'm willing to take the position right now Professor Ozpin!"

"Ruby Rose, as of now, you are the leader of the Aura Rangers."

"Excellent! Wait… WHAT!" Weiss exclaimed, leaping up in shock.

"Ruby has basically taken charge in battle both times now, and I can see her growing into a strong leader for the team." Ozpin replied.

"But… but! She's not leader material! Besides her general tardiness, I'm more disciplined and can take charge if need be!" Weiss complained.

Ozpin remained ever so calm. "Discipline is important, but not necessarily paramount in being a good leader. Ruby has shown combat sense and adaptability in battle, not you. Unless Ruby makes a massive screw up that you don't approve of, she is going to stay as leader."

Ozpin's comments struck Weiss like an arrow through the heart. Disheartened, she gave a simple "Yes sir," before remaining silent.

"Wonderful. That's all, you can leave." Ozpin proceeded to turn his chair around, admiring the scenery from his office.

* * *

In their next class, the Rangers were seated next to each other, waiting for their lecturer to make his appearance.

He was not what they expected. Instead of cool and professional, he was large and jolly, with an impressive moustache sitting on his face and covering his mouth. If not for the fact that he was probably human, you might mistake the moustache for being his actual mouth.

"Greetings, my students! I am Professor Port, and I will be teaching you Advanced Biology today!"

Professor Port continued, "Ah, yes! Nature is so fascinating, isn't it? Effectively a massive machine working together in harmony, created by no one but simple adaptation to the environment. My, it reminds me of how I got so interested in the first place! I was just a boy then…"

The professor continued to drone on, telling a story that might have been interesting, but droned on, and on, until it had little to do about him discovering his passion for biology, instead talking about his high school sweetheart and the airspeed of an unladen swallow.

Ruby, being a hyperactive sort, had little patience for such a story, and decided to lie her head on the table, dozing off. Even when she woke up, Professor Port was still not finished, now talking about his moustache. She decided to pass the time by doodling on her notepad, drawing random stuff like the Rangers kicking Grimm butt, to Professor Port himself, creatively renamed 'Professor Poop'. Proud of her crowning achievement of art, Ruby decided to show it to Weiss, sitting next to her.

Naturally, Weiss was listening intently. Or rather, trying to listen, since his overly long story was getting more and more unbelievable by the moment, including him using superpowers to fight monsters. Ruby distracting her with her magnum opus only made things worse. She showed her frustration with a simple scowl, leading Ruby to look ashamed of herself.

" _At least she can understand what irritation looks like_ "

* * *

For the next few days, things went as well as you could imagine, with a bossy heiress being snubbed for what she felt was an immature kid unsuited for leadership. Weiss, befitting her nickname of Ice Queen, mostly stayed cold to Ruby, begrudgingly listening to her, but not liking it.

For Ruby, she was ecstatic over being chosen leader, continuing to live her dreams of being a superhero. She tried to get Weiss to open up, but to no avail.

Life continued as normal, until Friday came. Most of the Rangers were relaxing one way or another, though White was down at the command centre, reading up on how to use her Semblance and Aura better. Unfortunately, their activities were interrupted by their Aura Changers buzzing.

"Rangers, there has been a new attack! Transmitting the location to you now! Activate the Aura Changer when you are ready for teleport!"

Becoming alert upon hearing those words, they quickly got dressed and smacked the button on their Aura Changers, and in a blink of an eye, they were gone.

Arriving at the scene, an industrial district covered in various Dust refineries, workers were scrambling from the factories, with some even yelling more about 'losing their pay' than caring that they may be killed. Beowolves poured out of the factories, chasing the workers, until…

"Halt fiends!" The Beowolves looked at the source of the voice, a figure in red flanked by figures in white, black and yellow.

Ruby continued her speech. "Your days of terrorising people are over! With our souls united together, we will defeat you!"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Ruby, please let's just morph now."

Ruby blushed a little, embarrassed. "Oh, right."

The Rangers lifted their arms up, pushing the button.

"Aura Form, Change!"

In a flash of light, the Aura Rangers were suited up and ready to go.

"Swift Justice! Aura Red!" Aura Red gave a thumbs up.

"Cooling Calm! Aura White!" Aura White gave a polite bow.

"Silent Shadows, Aura Black!" Aura Black lowered herself in a crouch, with her legs spread and one hand on the ground.

"BURNING PASSION! Auuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrra Yellow!" Aura Yellow bent over a little, clenching her fist hard, before thrusting it up high in a fistpump.

"AURA RANGERS, READY!"

*BOOM*

"So, you are the cosplay brigade interfering with our rampages huh?!" A gravelly voice called out from one of the factories. Walking out of the factory, it was what appeared to be giant humanoid blowtorch covered in unhealthy looking black growths around it.

"No matter, I'll make you all feel the heat of Blastburn!" Blastburn proceeded to blast out streams of fire at the Rangers, which they dodged pretty easily. "Huh, not going to go easy huh?! Beowolves, attack!"

Yellow quipped back. " _You'll_ be feeling the heat so much, you'll need a cold shower afterward!"

The Beowolves advanced, but by this time, they were basically easy pickings for the Rangers. Red using her speed with Crescent Rose unfolded to rush through multiple Beowolves. White was using Myrtenaster with skill and grace, augmenting her attacks with her Dust chambers, freezing Beowolves to take them out of the fight and make them easy targets. The Beowolves couldn't even find the real Black, with the each Black they attack being a shadow clone, while Black herself struck with backstabs left and right. Yellow was doing what she did best, punching Grimm.

Blastburn realising that the Beowolves are effectively done for, yelled out in the air.

"Boarbatusks! Come out!"

Suddenly, more portals opened around the Rangers, with rolling masses of black fur and bone bursting out of them, catching the Rangers by surprise and striking them multiple times.

The Rangers' helmets HUD showed their Aura levels dropping, while Ozpin's voice came out of the helmet.

"These are Boarbatusks. Their bone armour covers most of them while rolling out like that, so stay on the defensive until they unfurl, allowing you to attack their softer bellies."

Red, Black and Yellow nodded, and started to dodge the Boarbatusks, leading them to crash into the walls, forcing them to stop and open up, but Red had other ideas.

"Everyone! Attack Blastburn! I've got a plan!" to White's dismay.

"Red! Hold back for now! We'll stand a better chance if take this slow and stop the Boarbatusks first!"

"No, _you_ listen to me for a minute!"

Red rushed forward, but the lack of coordination between her and White left the team confused, and left Red on her own to fight Blastburn.

"Hah! Is that all you can do?" He grabbed onto Crescent Roseand pointed a blowtorch right in Red's face.

Red could only gasp in shock until White came rushed out, striking Blastburn and puncturing one of his gas tanks, resulting in an explosion that knocked back both Red and White, while Black and Yellow were finishing up the Boarbatusks.

"Woah! I've heard of getting heated up, but this is ridiculous!" Yellow said.

White was blown back, and as the smoke cleared, Blastburn was gone.

"Did we do it?" White asked.

Demorphing, Blake had an answer. "No. When we defeated Fountainhead, he left behind what was probably the plaza's fountain behind. Considering how Blastburn looked, there should be a blowtorch of some sort left behind, but there's nothing." Ozpin confirmed Blake's observations, stating that similar things happened in the previous war with the Grimm before.

"The best way we'll be finding him again would be in another attack, unfortunately."

Ruby was dismayed. "What did you do that for?! Like I said, I had a plan! What were you thinking?!"

Weiss looked at her and began to speak. "Why? It's because I can't trust you to be leader! You just don't have the maturity for it! I've observed you in class, and you are not someone that I will willingly place my life in their hands, simple as that."

Much like Weiss during the meeting with Ozpin, Weiss's words struck Ruby like an arrow the heart, but she was not going to take this lying down. "If you would have listened to me, we could have forced Blastburn into one of the factories where the Boarbatusks would have been unable to enter! You just assumed that I can't do anything right!"

Weiss had no response to that, just huffing and stomping off.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Ruby was reeling rather down about the whole situation. The Rangers' first fight with her as their leader, and it was a bust. Weiss just did not want to listen to her. Standing alone out in Beacon's courtyard, she just looked up at the sky, thinking to herself. At least Yang and Blake volunteered to try and look for Blastburn, but she was too occupied with thoughts to join them.

"Having some team troubles?" Ruby turned her head around to find the source of the voice. It was Ozpin, casually strolling in behind her.

"Yeah, I mean, Yang and Blake are fine, but it's Weiss. She really doesn't approve me as leader, and as you saw, even outright disobeyed me. I thought that this would be simple, come up with tactics to beat the Grimm, and then pose for explosions. But…"

Ozpin continued for Ruby. "… The chains of commanding prove to be more difficult to handle than you expected?" Ruby nodded in response. Ozpin continued on. "You may feel that you are unsuited for leadership, but while I've made plenty of mistakes before, I feel that appointing you leader was not one of them."

Ozpin didn't stop there. "Remember, leadership isn't just a thing you do during battle. It lasts beyond the battlefield, especially since you're living with your teammates in the same room. The most important thing every leader must pursue from their leaders is one simple word, _Respect_." Ruby cocked her head up toward Ozpin as he said that one word.

"It someone does not respect their leader, it shows a lack of faith in them, an unwillingness to acknowledge or follow that leader. Does that sound familiar?"

Ruby looked down, understanding what he meant. "Yeah, I know, but how do I do that?"

"Prove it. Show you conviction at being the Rangers' leader, simple as that."

" _Prove myself…"_ Ruby thought to herself.

Before leaving, Ozpin said a few final words. "Remember this too, a leader does not just need to get their subordinates' respect, leaders are also responsible for them as well. I know it is a huge burden, but I know that you can do it."

Soon enough, Ruby was alone in the courtyard again.

* * *

Weiss was in a hallway in Beacon's main building, similarly thinking to herself as well, until a jolly voice shook her out of it.

"Hello there, Miss Schnee! I see that you have some troubles of your own." Professor Port said.

"Huh? Oh hello Professor, it's just some issues with a… friend of mine."

The professor looked at Weiss intently, trying to get a read on her, until he glanced at her wrist.

"An Aura Changer? So you're the one of the new Rangers that has been fighting the Grimm."

Weiss was naturally rather surprised at this. "What?! How did you see it?!"

Port gave a hearty laugh. "Ho ho ho! I was a previous Ranger myself, looking out for any potential Grimm incursions that may happen. After all, if a single, limited attack gets bad enough, it could create enough negative energy to bring larger attacks with it."

Weiss pondered on that. "Huh, I guess that does make sense, operating as a lookout and first response," Weiss had a double take. " Wait… are you saying that your story about using superpowers to fight monsters is true?!"

"Correct! You are an observant student Miss Schnee, I can only wish that more students are as attentive." Port said, with pride welling in Weiss's chest.

"Well, if you know about us, then I guess I can tell you what's really bugging me. It's our newly appointed leader, Ruby. She's not leader material, I mean, during your class she was doodling you and not listening! I have no idea why Ozpin picked her instead of me!"

Port stroked his moustache. "Well, I see that you have a point. However, I trust Ozpin, he has never failed me before and probably not soon."

Weiss frowned at that. "So you'll blindly trust Ozpin just like that even after what I said?"

Port chuckled at that. "Oh yes, but looking at you, I see a bad attitude towards this whole situation."

Weiss was chagrined. "What?! No I'm not!"

"Case in point. You should try to look at this from another angle. Ask yourself this, have you given Ruby a chance yet?"

Weiss was somewhat indignant at that. "Of course I have! I've observed her and as I've said before, she lacks the maturity and discipline to be a leader!"

Port seemed amused. "That's it? From what you've said, it seems that you are looking at her with a _very_ critical eye, looking for chinks in her armour rather than looking at her in a balanced way. I agree that she may seem childish at first glance, but what about the _good_ things about her?"

Weiss had to think a little for that. "Well, she does have surprisingly good combat sense for someone so new, and she was disruptive during some classes, she _was_ trying to cheer me up from the boredom from your stories, no offence."

"None taken. See, how difficult was that? Everyone had strengths and flaws, Ruby is no exception. Just simply focusing on one thing will make you short-sighted and inflexible.

Just like you put your life into her hands, Ruby is also depending on her teammates, putting her life on their hands, yours included. Always remember that." With that, Professor Port left the hallway, leaving Weiss to think about what he said.

Trying to clear her mind, she decided to return to the command centre and read up on whatever records it had on Aura and how she could use it, trying to find a way to prevent Blastburn from running away again.

* * *

 _The next day…_

The Rangers were spending their time in the command centre, learning more about Aura and the Grimm in preparation for the inevitable rematch with Blastburn, until…

"Rangers! Blastburn has been detected again! Prepare to teleport!" Ozpin said, pointing at the location Blastburn has been detected.

Teleporting to the location, they could see plenty of people running away from the Grimm again.

Blastburn, upon sighting the Rangers, decided to taunt them. "Ah, the costumed squadron has returned! Here to try and do what you couldn't do before?"

Yang had a response to that. "Oh yeah, we'll see you hosed down before long!"

Everyone whipped out their Aura Changers and pushed the button.

"Aura Form, Change!"

Now morphed, the Rangers charged towards the mass of Beowolves.

Not wanting to waste any time, Blastburn quickly called for another hidden group of Boarbatusks, rushing the Rangers with their rollout attacks and forcing them onth the defensive as they dodged and took potshots at the Beowolves swinging at them.

White, in the midst of all this, kept an eye on Blastburn. One of his gas tanks on his chest was punctured, and gave a perfect target for her new move.

"Red! I'm going in!" White yelled, thrusting through multiple Beowolves on the way.

Red was shocked at White's insistence on advancing ahead just like that. "White! Not this again!"

"Don't worry, I've got an idea." Red would have responded had it not for the constant threat of the Boarbatusks and Beowolves.

Black was doing her best, using shadow clones to lure the Boarbatusks into crashing into walls, forcing them to unfurl and slow down, while Yellow went on the offensive, blowing Beowolves away from Black, covering her.

White advanced forward, switching the chamber on Myrtenaster to ice Dust and pulled the trigger, launching freezing projectiles at Blastburn's feet.

"Ooh! You'll give me freezerburn with that!" Blastburn taunted, while launching fire blasts at her, while White dodged with mechanical precision, managing to freeze Blastburn in place.

"Arrgh! I kept the heat on you constantly!" Blastburn was pissed. Spotting that White had stopped for whatever reason, he raised his blowtorch arms and fired directly at her.

It was right then when White realised a fatal flaw in her new technique. Bracing herself and closing her eyes, she expected to go into a whole new world of hurt from this blast from flames.

But they never hit.

"ARRRGH!" White heard a familiar high pitched voice cry out in pain as she heard an explosion go off, but didn't feel much from it. Opening her eyes, she saw little else but smoke, until she saw a familiar cloaked figure on the ground in front of her.

"Red?!" White yelled in shock. "Why… why did you do this?"

Red's voice was strained and she was clearly in pain. "Because… because I'm your leader. You put your life in my hands, and I cannot just stand by and let you get hit like that. I'm responsible for you after all, if you get hurt, it would at least be partly my fault."

White started to tear up at those words, but before she could say anything, Red stopped her.

"Didn't you have an idea? This smoke… he has no idea you're still standing… surprise him!"

White nodded. Getting up on her feet, she used the smoke as a cover to prepare her attack. Channelling extra amounts of Aura into Myrtenaster and supercharging the ice Dust in the loaded chamber, she pulled the trigger.

" **Aura Art, Frost Lance!** "

Blastburn was stunned by the attack call.

"WHAT?!" as he saw White standing in front of the fallen Red, with an absolutely massive lance made of ice expanding from Myrtenaster. Black and Yellow can only look on in wonder.

"Take this!" White charged forward, the ice lance protecting her from any of Blastburn's attacks, aiming for his punctured tank.

She hit, driving the lance right through the hole and Blastburn, landing behind him as he collapsed.

"I'm feeling the heat!"

* **BOOM!** *

After the explosion, there lay nothing but a simple blowtorch.

That would have been the end of it, but…

The Ranger's helmets crackled to life with Ozpin's voice, "Rangers! Subdimension transport detected! It's a Goliath-class!"

White was flummoxed. "What? We destroyed the Grimm right there!"

"Yes, but he has produced enough negative energy from his attacks to summon a Goliath-class…" Ozpin could not finish, interrupted by a massive special rift opening above the Rangers.

The Rangers could do little but stare in shock at it, until a _massive_ Beowolf emerged from it, but with Blastburn's head and arms instead.

White balked at that sight. "What. Is. THAT?!"

Her helmet crackled to life with Ozpin's voice. "That would be a Goliath-class Grimm, ancient beings with massive power that require a good amount of negative energy to be released. It seems that by using the negative energy Blastburn collected, it has taken his features and abilities as well."

Yellow responded to that. "While punching a giant to death sounds fun, I'd prefer something to even the odds, since living is a rather high priority for us, you know?"

"You'd be glad that I do a means to channel your Aura into forms capable of defeating these Goliath-classes. Just activate your Aura Changers and say "Aura Zord, Activate!""

Red, despite White's insistence on laying down and resting, stood up. "Alright Rangers, let's do this."

The Rangers pushed the buttons. "Aura Zord, Activate!"

The Aura Changers started to glow with their colours, surrounding them before continuing to extend outwards into massive humanoid forms. The glow wore off, revealing their new armoured forms.

Red was medium sized compared to the other Rangers, her head covered in a hood and wielding two sickles with glowing red blades.

"Rose Aura Zord, ready!"

White was the smallest of the four, with long spindly limbs, and a headpiece looking like a crown covering her head, and constantly flying with back mounted packs that spewed out wing-like jets of Aura. Instead of a melee weapon, she wielded Aura cannons in her arms and shoulders.

"Frost Aura Zord, ready!"

Black has the strangest form, as it looked like a humanoid mass of shadow partially covered up by free floating pieces of armour, and wielded a similarly shadowy whip.

"Shadow Aura Zord, ready!"

Yellow was the bulkiest of the four, covered in heavy armour, exhaust pipes spewing flames and having similar gauntlets on her arms.

"Blaze Aura Zord, ready!"

Finishing up their roll call, the Rangers marvelled at their new forms.

"Everything just looks like a model from here…" Red said, amazed at the sight

"I'm the smallest…?" White said, somewhat dejected. "Well, size doesn't matter, probably."

Black was silent, observing her new form and how she could use it.

"Woah, everyone is just like ants here-," Yellow started to speak, but…

"DON'T use this power willy-nilly. The Rangers are supposed to fight to save people, not to cause collateral damage, so be careful as you fight the Goliath-class." Ozpin interrupted.

Red nodded. "Alright Rangers, let's do this!"

"Roger!"

The four Zords advanced on the Goliath-class, while it started to attack them, blasting flames at them, specifically at the White.

Fortunately, the Frost Aura Zord's smaller size and flight made White much more manoeuvrable, dodging the Goliath-class's attacks.

"See, size doesn't really matter!" White called out to the rest of the Rangers, "He's occupied with me, attack now!"

The Rangers nodded, and proceeded to strike at the Goliath-class's exposed back with their attacks, with Black using her whip to restrain him, while Yellow wailed on him with punches. The Goliath-class could only roar in fury as he was being outmanoeuvred by the Rangers.

Red gathered next to White. "Come on White! Let's finish him together!"

White nodded in response. "Yes, let's do so."

Red's blades glowed brighter with more Aura, while White's cannons similarly glowed brighter. With a flash, White fired her cannons, firing out a freezing blast that encased the Goliath-class, while Red rushed ahead, raking him with her sickles and shattering the Goliath-class into tiny pieces.

The Rangers turned their backs to the Goliath-class's icy remains.

"Grimm, hunted!"

In a bright flash, the Rangers were reverted back to their normal demorphed selves. But before any could celebrate, Ruby collapsed onto the ground, her injuries catching up with her.

Weiss feeling her heart skip a beat, rushed towards the collapsed form of her leader. Checking her for any injuries, she was glad that the suit took much of the damage, though Ruby may be feeling the pain from that for a few days.

"You… you dolt! You just had to protect me like that didn't you? But, for that, thank you."

Ruby gave her a weak smile. "Well, that's just what a leader does, right?"

Weiss nodded at that, giving a warm smile, "Right! Now come on _leader_ , let's go home."

* * *

Teleporting back to the command centre, Ruby's injuries were taken a look at and patched up.

"While she's going to be fine, she should probably take it easy for the next few days," Ozpin said, glad that the team has come closer together.

While Ruby could probably have walked back to the Rangers' room, Weiss insisted on carrying her there, saying about how she feels responsible, and 'not to expect this sort of thing again', but Ruby knew better.

Tucking Ruby into bed, Weiss glanced at Ruby's face, and looking at its peaceful expression, Weiss gave a small smile before going to bed herself.

* * *

 _The next morning…_

It was a beautiful Sunday at Beacon Academy, with the sun shining like a great big beacon telling students to get up and make it a productive day.

However, Weiss is rather indifferent to the sun, instead preferring to sleep off the previous day on her bed, until…

* **BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!** *

An incredibly loud airhorn sounded out, shocking Weiss awake so hard that the fell off her bed.

"W-what was that?!" She yelled in confusion, her vision sharpening, turning the featureless blob in front of her into a chipper and energetic Ruby.

"R-Ruby? What are you doing up and about so early? You should be resting to recover!"

Yang rushed to Ruby's side while Ruby gave Weiss a great big smile. "Who needs rest when they have the power of youth? I feel absolutely fine, and as such we are going to start up the redecoration of our room, starting with BUNK BEDS!"

Weiss was a mixture of annoyed and marvelled by Ruby's energy, in fact, it was starting to pick her up too, despite her sleepiness.

"Well, I always did want bunk beds, lead the way Ruby!"

 _Despite initial misgivings, Weiss is touched by Ruby's heart and has gained a new respect for her as the team grows closer._

 _Aura Rangers Hunt 2… ends here!_


	3. Hunt 3: Don't Mess With a Bunny

It was a relaxed Friday evening in the fine Beacon Academy, where its elevated height being built on a hill gave the students and staffs a great view of the red setting sun and golden sky. The temperature was just right, making even the most studious of students take pause to relax a bit to enjoy the scenery, except for one.

Blake was sitting at her corner in the Rangers' room, which now barely resembled it's originally neat and stately design. A charitable person may describe it as 'homely', while a less charitable mind would describe it as 'an accident waiting to happen'. Each four corners of the room has been turned into a personal space for each Ranger, decorated with their own sensibilities, creating a haphazard look to their room, from neat and orderly, to messy/organised chaos.

But the most striking thing about the room was the beds. Originally four beds arranged side by side, they have been turned by a mixture of hard work, ingenuity, insanity and pure luck into 'bunk beds', with one upper bed suspended up high by ropes and nails, while the other was propped up precariously by stacks of books. Despite the clearly dangerous design, they were actually pretty sturdy, barring someone jumping up and down on them for an extended period of time.

Blake herself was spending her time reading from a book, deeply engrossed in it, until…

"Hey Blake!" Yang walked in on her with a great big friendly smile. Sitting down next to Blake and making herself comfortable, she opened her mouth again, "So, watcha readin?"

Blake gave an internal sigh. "Nothing that would interest you much, I feel."

Yang was undeterred. "Hey, don't judge a book by its cover, right? Let me take a look."

Blake relented, and passed Yang the book.

"Hmm… not particularly interesting, just stuff we've gone through or will be going through. So, anything more, _interesting_?"

Blake recoiled at the emphasis on 'interesting', "W-what do you mean?"

Yang gave her a half-lidded stare, "Come on, I've seen you reading some rather… _explicit_ books when you think no one's looking."

Blake fought to keep a blush down, "Does the term 'respecting others' privacy' mean anything to you?"

Yang looked a little sheepish at that, "Well, I wasn't _trying_ to peep at you during your alone time, I just heard a sound in our room and took a peep at its source. Besides, you usually stay so silent, I'm lonely right now, so I want someone to talk to."

Blake wasn't particularly satisfied with Yang's response, "Well… I don't want to be distracted, so just go, ok? Besides, can't you talk to Ruby, or just bug Weiss?"

Yang wasn't pleases at Blake's reply, "Well jeez, lighten up will you? Besides, Ruby and Weiss are hanging out together now, apparently 'discussing tactics', but for all I know, they could be playing video games or something, who knows?"

Blake raised an eyebrow at Yang, "Really? Still, I'd prefer that you leave me alone."

"Hmm, alright, I'll give you space, but I'm still going to get you to open up one day!" Yang walked out of the room, giving Blake a confident smile as well.

Blake now free from any distractions, tried to go back to her book, but her concentration was broken, and now, all kinds of different thoughts drifted around in her mind.

" _Get me to open up, huh?"_

Putting down her book, she got up and left the room, trying to clear her mind.

* * *

 _Long ago, the Creatures of Grimm threatened mankind, but they were sealed away, leaving mankind at peace. However, the Creatures of Grimm have returned, and four youths have unlocked the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to fight against them._

 _They are the…_

 **Aura Rangers!**

 **Hunt 3: Don't Mess With a Bunny**

Blake walked down the hallways of Beacon Academy, trying to find a quiet spot to relax from the hustle and bustle of the school. She knew that with a place this large, that had to be some lying around.

"Stop! Let me go!" Blake's bow twitched in response to a female voice coming from , from one of the libraries.

Looking at the direction of the voice, she saw something that she really didn't want to see.

Some large built jock and his posse of goons picking on a defenceless brown haired girl, but that wasn't the most striking part of the scene.

She had a pair of rabbit ears poking out of her head, and naturally, the jock was pulling on the sensitive ears, causing the girl much distress.

" _A faunus? Not a very common sight around here…"_ Blake thought to herself.

"A fitting punishment for your kind's crimes, heh heh!" The jock was either ignorant of the sensitivity of a rabbit's ears, or all too aware of it, as the girl's pained expression showed.

Blake wasn't having any of this, "Do you know how much you're hurting her?"

The jock turned around to face her, revealing him to be Cardin Winchester, a freshman to the school that was quickly becoming the football team's rising star.

"Yeah, so? She's an animal, she won't be feeling that."

Blake kept her composure, "That line is so ignorant that I'm just going to ignore it. Let her go."

Cardin was not deterred, "Well, why don't you let it go and mind your own business?"

Blake was similarly undeterred, "You don't really have anything meaningful to say, don't you?"

Cardin was losing his patience quick, "Why you little…!" He rushed in forward towards Blake, but she casually dodged around him.

Cardin continued to try and hit Blake, but she continued to dodge them with gracefulness, before grabbing his arm and throwing him down to the ground with a thud.

"Wha…? Come on! Guys! Back me up!"

Cardin's three flunkies, Russel Thrush, Dove Bronzewing and Sky Lark proceeded to move ahead, trying to hit Blake, only striking air as she continued to evade their attacks, taking advantage of their lack of coordination to counter their attacks, grabbing onto one of them and using him to knock the rest down, before grabbing onto the girl's hand and running further into the library.

"Trying to run? Get her!" Cardin and his flunkies ran into the library, trying to find Blake and the girl in the veritable city of bookshelves.

Blake herself remained silent, prowling the bookshelves, remaining out of their sight.

"Where is she…?"

"?"

"Nothing here…"

"Must be my imagination…"

Cardin was cheesed at Blake for intruding on him and roughing him up, but after searching over and over again, he could find nothing.

"Too cowardly to face us, huh? Let's go guys, we've got a big game tomorrow and we should be training for it now, let's go."

* * *

Now a good distance from her tormentors, Velvet continued to follow Blake, who brought her out while her bullies were busy combing the library for her. Her movements were slow and she showed fatigue on her face.

"I'm… sorry to have troubled you."

Blake's face softened at the quiet girl's words, "It's no problem," Blake dug in a pocket and pulled out a tin of mints, "Take some, you'll need it."

"Uhh… no, thank you."

"I know that most faunus usually have weaker stamina, so I insist."

"That usually isn't common knowledge, so how…"

Blake's eyes shot up, leading Velvet's own to the bow on her head. Velvet immediately understood what she meant, and took the tin of mints.

"Thank… thank you, what's your name?"

"Blake, Blake Belladonna. What about yours?"

"Velvet Scarlatina," Velvet paused for a moment, "That… was really impressive." Velvet asked.

"It's nothing, really."

"You could hold your own against them, while I can only rely on others to protect me…" Velvet said, saddened.

"I wouldn't call myself good at protecting people."

"Why do you think that?"

Blake recoiled at Velvet's question, remembering of things long past.

"I'd rather not talk about that."

Velvet sensed Blake's discomfort at the question, and let it be.

"Still though, I wish I could be like you…"

Blake smiled back, "If that gives you some purpose in life, then take it."

"So… what were you doing anyway?" Velvet asked.

"Well, just looking for somewhere quiet and private, since my room gets a little noisy at times."

Velvet's eyes suddenly brightened, "I know a place, follow me!"

* * *

Following Velvet through Beacon, Blake found herself going through Beacon's courtyard, situated in the middle of the Academy. Beautiful trees of all kinds littered the place, while hedges crisscrossed the place, creating a pattern that resembled the school's emblem.

"Come on, we're almost there." Velvet said, gesturing to Blake to continue following her.

Walking further into the courtyard, Velvet stopped at a particular hedge, putting her hands forward, she felt for a particular area where her hands sunk in further. Pushing in forward, she went right past the mass of leaves, gesturing Blake to follow her.

Blake put her hands forward at that particular point, instead of feeling branches, felt an opening she could pass her hands through. Walking through it, she found herself in a little alcove in the hedge, cut off from the outside world, just large enough for a couple of people.

"Well, how do you like it? I found this during my first year, now it's my little corner of the world, where no one can hurt me one way or another."

"Hmm… this is perfect, thank you. But are you sure you should be showing me this?" Blake asked.

"Well, you're the only person who has stepped up to defend me all this time, so I feel like I can trust you. Besides, we faunus should stick together, right?"

"Hmm, I guess… So, what brings you to Beacon anyway? From what I see, faunus aren't really a common sight around here" Blake asked

"Well, my family is in bad straits, with discrimination against us, I felt that I needed to do something. So I enrolled, and tried to make something out of myself, and help my family, that's all."

"Tried?"

Velvet sighed, "As you see, it's not easy for me out there. While Cardin and his flunkies are the only ones to escalate to violence with me, most others just regard me with ambivalence and coldness. It's… difficult."

"I can imagine…" Blake said.

Over the next hour or so, they chatted up on various things, from their day to day lives at Beacon, how Cardin and his flunkies have bullied her ever since she went to Beacon, which Blake swear she saw a look of pure hatred flash through Velvet's face then, to the strange stuff with the recent monster attacks, though Blake remained fairly silent over that.

"So, what about you? What brought you to Beacon?" Velvet asked, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Blake's smile faded a little, "Nothing really interesting, really."

Blake was going to continue, only for the leaves around the alcove's entrance to start rustling.

Blake got up into a fighting stance, "Who's there?" ,only for a busty girl with long blond hair to come falling through the leaves.

"Oww… should have been more careful…"

"Yang?! You really are following me!" Blake exclaimed, dragging Yang outside the alcove with her.

"Ok, ok, I _was_ following you this time." Yang said, with a sheepish expression on her face and a large goofy smile.

" _Why?_ " Blake was not amused, at all. Velvet was just cowering in the corner, hoping that this doesn't escalate into a fight.

"Well… I just wanted to see what made you tick, so that I could be your friend, simple as that."

Blake's expression softened a little. "My… friend?"

Yang continued on, "Yeah, I mean, all this time you've been with us, and you're so quiet. Polite yes, but never beyond simple pleasantries, and when you were talking with that bunny-girl over there, I saw you smile your most genuine smile ever since we met. I want to see you give that smile with us around, that's all.

Blake narrowed her eyes, "Well, you're not going to get it following and bugging me like that," she dug her hands back into the hedge and pulled Velvet out, "Come on Velvet, we're going."

"Going where?"

"Somewhere away from her," pointing at Yang with an accusing stare, who just looked kind of guilty with her head down.

Little do they know, a figure in a short red dress with a black face concealing helmet was watching over them, covered up by a perception filter from her helmet, making her difficult to notice.

* * *

With a quick bus trip, Blake brought Velvet to one park close by to Beacon, trying to get some actual quiet time without Yang's interference. Finding a clearing with no one around, she and Velvet sat down next to one another.

"So… why? Why help me like this? No one has really done anything like this for me before…"

"Simple, I can't just stand by and let such an injustice occur like that. So, if you ever need my help, I'll be there." Blake said, with a warm smile on her lips.

However, Velvet's didn't seem to reciprocate the feeling, looking down to the ground, thinking about something instead.

Whatever she was thinking about was disrupted however, by a dark rift opening in front of both Blake and Velvet. Blake immediately got into a fighting pose, ready to activate her Aura Changer, but realized that Velvet was still watching, and she didn't want to risk the perception filter breaking under Velvet's attention to her.

However, what emerged from the rift was in fact, not snarling masses of shadowy fur and bone, but what appeared to be a human woman, clad in a short red dress and a face concealing black helmet. Blake could sense that she wasn't good news from the ominous entrance and walk towards them ,and kept her hand close to her Aura Changer.

"Hello, Velvet," the woman spoke in a smooth, sultry voice, "I have a proposition for you."

"W-what?" Velvet was shaking, unsure of what to make of this situation.

"You can call me the Black Queen, and…"

Blake couldn't wait any longer, she ran towards the Black Queen and went for a leg sweep, but her move was anticipated, and the Black Queen leapt backwards. Blake continued to attack her with a rapid series of punches, but they were all blocked until her final punch was caught in the Black Queen's hand, and was countered with a series of punches into Blake's gut, knocking her down onto the ground. The Black Queen continued her advantage with a stomp, but Blake rolled away, getting up for a second round. This back and forth kept going for a bit, with Velvet only able to watch, feeling more powerless than ever. Finally, The Black Queen knocked her down again, and proceeded to channel a bit of negative energy in her hand, shooting it out into another rift that released a couple of Beowolves to finish Blake off. Fortunately, Blake is not one to just go down like that, and she got up again, dodging their attacks and attacking them whenever she could.

While Blake was being kept busy by the Beowolves, the Black Queen faced Velvet, frozen with fear, and started to speak.

"You have nothing to fear from me, Miss Scarlatina, I just wish to help you, that's all."

"…Help me?" Velvet was still shaking greatly from the bizarre situation she found herself in.

"Yes. I heard that you have some issues with a quartet of bullies, led by the football team's rising star, Cardin Winchester, am I correct?"

Suddenly, upon hearing those words, the rest of the world went silent to Velvet, from the rustling leaves of the trees, to Blake fighting the Beowolves, they all faded into the background as Velvet's attention was completely on the Black Queen.

"Yes, they've been nothing but trouble for me ever since I went to Beacon."

The Black Queen chuckled a bit, "I see, and you don't fight back against them because you're weak and don't stand a chance against them, right?"

"…yes."

"What if I tell you that I can give you the means to act on your deep-seated resentment against them, for _nothing_?"

"What?"

"Just imagine, finally being able to defend yourself, and put those four in their place. They'll never bother you ever again."

"…what do I have to do?"

The Black Queen gave a small chuckle, "It's simple, really," she proceeded to put on a white glove on her right arm with a strange eye symbol of some sort on it, "just relax," soon enough, a small dark rift opened up on the glove's palm, and a strange black and white bug emerged from it, chittering away, "all you need to do, is to accept my power."

* * *

 _An undefined amount of time ago…_

 _The Black Queen walked into a quiet alley, devoid of Vale's typical hustle and bustle, and muttered a few words._

" _Activate subdimension channel"_

 _As she said those words, the sight of the alleyway shattered into several tiny pieces, leaving behind a dark swirling mass of space, where she stood in front of the master of the Grimm, Salem._

" _Greetings, Master Salem," the Black Queen said as she kneeled down._

" _You may rise, Black Queen."_

 _The Black Queen rose, "I sensed that you wished to see me, what seems to be the problem?"_

 _Salem smiled, "There is no problem, but the gradual bleed in of negative energy from mankind is now enough to do more than just isolated attacks by Beowolves and Boarbatusks."_

" _What do you mean by that, Master?"_

" _What I mean, is that we can progress to the next phase of the return of the Grimm," Salem raised a hand, and a white glove materialised into existence before the Black Queen._

" _This is…" the Black Queen started, but she was interrupted._

" _Your new weapon, a means to create powerful beings to accelerate the collection of negative energy for our return, and a weapon against Ozpin's pesky Rangers as well."_

" _The Rangers are of little consequence, they'll be dealt with."_

" _I'm all too aware of you limited power due to our sealing, Black Queen. One Ranger may be ok, but more than that would be dangerous. Because of that, it would be wise for you to take my gift to you and use it wisely."_

"… _understood."_

" _Once the glove is charged up with enough negative energy, use it on an appropriate object, the negative energy will transform it into a being more powerful than typical basic Grimm, and make building up negative energy much easier."_

" _Understood, Master."_

" _One more thing, inanimate objects aren't the only things the glove can transform. Particular individuals with significant Aura, even if it is locked, and negative energy as well are vulnerable to the effects of the glove as well."_

" _That is_ very _interesting Master, thank you."_

 _As she finished those words, the alleyway reassembled itself before the Black Queen's eyes, and she was back in the real world._

* * *

Blake managed to hear Velvet's conversation with the Black Queen, even if she was busy with the Beowolves, and cried out for her.

"No! Velvet, please, don't do anything you may reg-aaugh!" Blake was interrupted by a Beowolf raking her skin, drawing a small amount of blood.

However, Velvet wasn't listening, her attention now set on the bug in front of her, contemplating what the Black Queen said to her. Her mind was saying 'no', but something _deeper_ in her yearned for the power, and she found herself unable to resist it. Nodding to the Black Queen, who smiled behind her helmet and allowed the bug to bite Velvet.

"Aargh!" Velvet cried as she felt a mixture of pain and power coursing through her. Blake's eyes widened at the sight before her, as Velvet was wrapped in a vortex of negative energy for a moment. As the vortex dissipated, it revealed Velvet, but _different_.

What appeared to be thin plates of bone plating covered her torso, arms and legs, while her waist and hips were now covered a similar sort of shadowy looking flesh, whit bone spikes pointing out of it. Her head was now also covered in a bone 'helmet' of sorts, with two spikes pointing out that resembled a rabbit's ears. Additionally, the bug that bit Velvet was now on her back, constantly biting down on her.

"Velvet?" Blake asked, her heart skipping a beat before she had to dodge another attack from a Beowolf.

Velvet looked down at her new self, glowing red eyes looking at her arms and whatnot.

"I…I feel so MUCH power!"

The Black Queen gave another small chuckle, "Yes, whit this power, you can do whatever you want to those four."

Blake couldn't watch anymore, risking a blown identity, she whipped out her Aura Changer and activated it.

" **Aura Form, Change!"**

In a quick flash of light, Aura Black whipped out Gambol Shroud in its sword form and quickly slashed away at the Beowolves, dodging their attacks with grace and taking them down in quick order. Turning Gambol Shroud into its pistol form, she started to fire upon the Black Queen, only to have her fire off a blast of energy at Black's feet, causing her to recoil. Upon recovering from the attack, she saw that the Black Queen was gone.

"Yes… now to give Cardin and his goons what they deserve!"

"No, Velvet, what are you thinking?'

"Hmm? An Aura Ranger? I have no conflict with you, if you know what's best you should leave now."

Fortunately, with Velvet's attention to herself, the filter worked and Velvet had no idea who Black was, but that was little comfort to her.

"No, I know what you're going to do to Cardin, and I even if I don't like him at all, I can't just stand by and let you have your way!" Black raised Gambol Shroud in sword form, but she was unwilling to attack Velvet.

"You don't understand, Cardin and his flunkies have been making an already tough time in Beacon even _worse_! It's not just me as well, they've been bullying others, and have shown no sign of stopping, so it's up to me to give them a taste of their own medicine!" Velvet prepared to walk away, only to be blocked by Black.

"Like I said, I can't let you have your way. Please, what happened to that sweet, shy girl that won't hurt a fly?"

"That may have been true before, but then I saw her…"

"Her?"

"She stood up to those bullies for a complete stranger, and fought them off easily as well. That's what I want, the strength to stand up for myself, and others!"

"So that gives you the right to attack Cardin and his goons then?"

"YES! Get out of my way!" Velvet went in with a spinning kick, only for Black to block it with Gambol Shroud's sheath. Velvet proceeded to go on the offensive, striking at Black while she defended, and acting as a wall against Velvet from going anywhere.

However, Black's stamina was already falling low, unable to keep up her defence for much longer. Eventually, she took a split second too long to raise Gambol Shroud to block a punch, and took it right in the face, causing her to stumble back, only to quickly get back up despite the pain.

"I have no conflict with you, but you force my hand." Velvet focused energy into her right foot and jumped up, sticking her right foot out, diving right at Black, dealing a powerful kick that sent her flying back into some trees.

"Ugh!" Black struggled to get up, but couldn't find the energy to do so. Velvet started to walk away, free to do whatever she wanted, only for a bright flash before her to stop her in her tracks.

" **Aura Form, Change!"**

The flash faded, revealing Red, White and Yellow ready to fight.

"Prepare to be hunted, Grimm!" Red held up Crescent Rose, prepared to attack.

White didn't say anything, instead raising Myrtenaster, switching to a chamber of fire Dust.

Yellow wasn't focused on Velvet, though. Looking to her side, she saw Black struggling to get up.

"Black! What happened?!"

Red's voice took on a more authoritative tone, "Yellow, take care of Black. White and I will deal with the Grimm."

Yellow nodded, "Got it!"

Red moved in quickly, going for the offensive with Crescent Rose, while Velvet gracefully dodged her attacks, taking advantage of Crescent Rose's heavy weight. However, White wasn't just providing moral support, as she started to launch fire bolts at Velvet, denying space for her to move as the grass caught fire around her. With Velvet unable to move, Ruby gave Crescent Rose a great big swing, and struck Velvet dead centre, sweeping away the flames at the same time.

Meanwhile, Yellow was trying to bring up Black on her feet, "Come on, you should have called us first."

"No…" Black said, distressed.

Yellow backpedalled a little, "I mean, not that you can't handle yourself, but…"

"That's not what I meant, Red and White have to stop attacking her!"

Yellow was flummoxed, "Wait, what? Why?"

Black raised her voice so that Red and White could hear her, "That isn't just like any Grimm we faced before, that's a _person_ you're fighting!"

Red, in the process of hitting the collapsed Velvet with Crescent Rose again, immediately stopped, holding Crescent Rose just in front of Velvet's face, while White stared straight at Black.

"You-you're kidding, right?"

The Rangers' helmets crackled to life with Ozpin's voice, "Unfortunately, no. There were cases of this happening back in the war centuries ago, where an insectoid Grimm would feed off a person's negative energy and would transform them into a Grimm themselves, even influencing the person's mind to further produce more negative energy for it to feed. Truly a monstrous creature, taking advantage of a person's weakness like that."

Black nodded in agreement with Ozpin, "She's a student from Beacon. Someone calling herself the Black Queen turned her, then convinced her to use it to fight back against some bullies of hers. Try not to hurt her, please."

Red was about to withdraw Crescent Rose, only for Velvet to grab onto its blade, "Don't pity me! I don't need you to protect me, and I'll prove it now! Then I'll deal with Cardin, _permanently!_ "

Black's face fell at that particular word, "No, she's becoming unstable, please restrain her!"

Velvet's hand started to glow, spreading until the glow covered all of Crescent Rose, before she leapt backwards, her hand still glowing. Soon, familiar looking lines drew out of Velvet's hand, forming what appeared to be a wireframe replica of Crescent Rose.

Red was stunned, "She can copy weapons?!" Only for Velvet to strike at her, throwing her back a good distance. White was similarly stunned, but regained her footing quickly. She still felt apprehensive about attacking Velvet, which she then used as an opportunity to get close and copy Myrtenaster as well.

"What?!" White started to attack Velvet, but holding back, trying to tire her out to make her easier to subdue, but Velvet used superior reflexes twisting herself out of White's way before countering with swift jabs from the copied Myrtenaster, knocking her down to the ground.

Yellow was pissed, and rushed forward in an attempt to sock Velvet in the face, but Velvet took advantage of her natural agility and dodged the attack, grabbing onto Yellow's arm with one hand and touching Ember Celica, replicating it on both her hands, before knocking Yang away with a kick.

"Why you little…!"

Yellow ran forward again, trying grabbing onto Velvet and restraining her. However, this left her fairly open to Velvet's punches, augmented by the replicated Ember Celica, knocking the wind out of her with a good gut punch.

That played into Yellow's advantage, absorbing the strikes into more energy for her punches as her visor slowly went from black to a deep red. She went from simply being 'angry' to being 'really angry', shifting from restraining her to outright offense, to Black's dismay.

Yellow threw out punch after punch, most missing the agile Velvet, but soon enough, some punches hit, weakening Velvet. But she wasn't out of the fight yet, rearing back and throwing out a haymaker right at Yellow. Normally, Yellow would have dodged or blacked the punch, but in her rage-addled state, she decided that parrying the haymaker with one of her own was the best idea, and proceeded to do so, with explosive results.

 ***BOOM!***

The area was covered in smoke, blinding the Rangers, but as it cleared, there was no one else in the area except for them.

Demorphing, Blake went up to Yang, who was somewhat but not seriously injured, "What were you thinking? You could have hurt her?"

Yang looked a little guilty, but didn't back down, "She could have hurt us even more if we held back. You said it yourself that she was going to go after those bullies, right?"

"Yes, but she's… not herself. I'm sure that I can talk her down and get her to stop."

"But what if you can't?" Yang replied.

"Then… then I'll do what I must." Blake said, her eyes resolute.

Ruby butted in, "Who was that Grimm anyway? You seemed to know her."

Blake sighed, tired from what happened, and proceeded to recount the day's events, from saving Velvet from Cardin to the Black Queen.

After hearing that, Weiss piped up, "Of course, a faunus would have done this." Blake shot her an incredibly venomous glare, enough to make Weiss back off.

Ruby spoke next, "Do you all think that we should wait for her to attack in order to locate her?"

The Aura Changers crackled with Ozpin's voice, "While that may work, it may be more difficult to locate such Grimm, as they may have other motives beyond causing blind destruction. I suggest you all try to determine where she may go."

Blake was unsure, "I don't know, she could have run off and hidden herself anywhere by now. The only lead we have is that she's targeting Cardin..." Blake's eyes lit up with an idea, "Of course, the game that Cardin and his goons are playing in! That's her only solid piece of information on his whereabouts!"

Ruby continued on, "Well guys, let's rest up good for that game tomorrow then!

"No, I want to face her alone," Blake continued

"Alone? She wrecked you just now, and you want to face her alone?" Yang said, surprised.

"She may be unstable now, but her anger is still focused on Cardin and his flunkies. I'm sure she'll also try to avoid fighting me if possible."

"Still, you're going to risk facing her alone?"

"Yes, it's partly my fault this happened after all." Blake said, directing her eyes away from Yang's face.

Yang, acting without thinking, grabbed onto Blake's arms, "NO! We're a team, aren't we? We should stick together, especially when your life is at risk like that!"

Blake grabbed Yang's arms and pried them off her, "Perhaps, but I'm to blame here, I can't drag you all into this."

Yang was undeterred, grabbing Blake's arm again, "Well, let us help you shoulder the burden then! Isn't that what friends do, help each other with their problems?"

Blake shook off her arm, "Well, we're _not_ friends, are we?"

"Well, not _yet_ , but I'll make you part of us soon enough, and this is one way to do so!"

"Perhaps, but still, I'm doing this alone, please."

"Come on!"

Ruby cut into their conversation, "Wait! Stop it, you two!" pushing the two away from each other, "Just calm down first, ok? Especially you sis," Yang blushed and gave an embarrassed smile at that.

"Blake, you can face her alone." Blake was surprised at her leader's easy approval over the matter.

"R-really?"

"Yeah, as long as you know what you're doing." Ruby flashed a smile.

"T-thank you, Ruby." Blake said, leaving for Beacon.

Weiss gave a smile, "While something about her unnerves me, I can respect someone trying to right their own mistakes."

Yang was puzzled, "You're just going to let her go?"

Ruby nodded, "Yeah! I mean, you understand why she wants to face Velvet alone, right? Isn't that what friends do? Understand each other?"

"Throwing my words back at me, huh? Alright fine, but I'm just concerned for her safety, that's all."

Ruby smiled back, "It's alright sis, no matter what she'll be fine, I can assure that."

Yang also smiled back, "Yeah… you make a good point sis, I just hope that she can talk some sense into Velvet." Ruby and Weiss nodded in agreement.

* * *

The next day…

At a one of Vale's sports stadiums, Cardin and his football team were walking along the stadium's hallways, a painted in a plain white colour with cabinets filled with all kinds of sports equipment lining the walls with a couple of benches by the sides.

Celebrating their latest win over a rival team from Atlas, they stopped in their tracks as they heard screams from the hallway ahead of them.

Before any of them could do anything else, they found a security guard being thrown onto a wall, knocking him out, while a black and white figure with a feminine figure appeared past the corridor, walking straight towards them, yelling out a single name.

"CARDIN!"

Upon hearing that, most of the team ran off, leaving only Cardin and his three flunkies alone in the hallway. The four of them tried to run the other way, only for Velvet to catch up quickly, blocking them again.

Cardin's heart was beating faster, but he remained cool, "So, you're specifically targeting us? Well, we're not going down without a fight!"

The four rushed forward, trying to attack her with heavy, uncoordinated punches, and only manage to hit air as Velvet gracefully weaved through the mass of arms to counterattack. First, she grabbed onto one of Sky's arms and twisted it, breaking it before throwing him onto the ground. Afterward, she kneed Dove in the crotch, making him keel over before Velvet elbowed his back and knocked him onto the ground. Next, she sweep kicked Russel, making fall onto the ground before stomping on his head, knocking him out. Finally, Cardin tried to do a football tackle on Velvet, only for ther to grab onto his face and somersault over him, pulling him down onto the ground before kneeling down, glaring at him with blood red eyes. She then started to speak.

"For these two years, you've been nothing but trouble for me, never giving up a chance to belittle me and hurt me!"

Cardin was somewhat dazed, and thought that the best thing to do was to rile her up further, "Really? I-I can't remember, you must blend in to the background then, heh."

Velvet responded by kicking him.

"Oof!"

"You've been making my time in Beacon a living hell!"

Cardin snarked back, "Lady, if insults and the occasional roughing up is a 'living hell', then you've gotta-"

Another kick.

"Arrgh, you've got strong legs, you know that?"

"It just kept going on and on, you made me feel… less than _human_!"

Cardin looked up at Velvet, "Wait… human? Oh… so that's who you are. Heheheheheh, ahahahahahahahahaha!"

"You're laughing? Why, why, WHY?!" Velvet was incensed by Cardin's laughter.

"Ahahha… I'm just laughing because, in the process of fighting back to get revenge for calling you an 'animal' and other such stuff, you ended up acting more like a wild animal than ever before, heh."

Velvet was seeing nothing but red upon hearing that, "NAARRGH!" Raising her hand, she prepared to pummel Cardin's head in, only for her to get distracted by multiple gunshots striking near her. Looking from the direction of the shots, she saw Aura Black standing there, with Gambol Shroud in gun form.

" _Darn, too late to prevent her attack, if only the evacuation of the stadium didn't slow me down."_ Black thought to herself.

"You again, why are you stopping me? I thought the Rangers were fighting for justice?" Velvet said, her voice filled with frustration.

"You call this justice? Trying to bash a guy's head in for bullying you? Whatever the bug did to you, it's affecting your judgement, can't you see-" Black tried to finish, only for Velvet to start attacking her.

"Shut up! I'm here for one reason and I'm not letting anyone stop me, not even you!"

" _So much for avoiding a fight…"_ Black thought to herself.

While Black was still fighting defensively, instead of just blocking strikes, she was being more evasive, weaving through Velvets attacks, and dealing light strikes to slow her down.

Inbetween her fight with Velvet, Black called out to Cardin, "Hey you! Get out of here as fast as possible!"

Quickly nodding, he carried the unconscious Russel on his back while getting the rest of his group to get up and run away as fast as possible.

However, as she swung Gambol Shroud, Velvet managed to grab onto the blade, her hand glowing before copying it as she did for the previous three Rangers.

With renewed vigour, Velvet started to slash at Black. While she was less skilled in using Gambol Shroud, Black was too busy trying to speak to Velvet to provide a proper defense from Velvet's incredibly aggressive attacks, swinging wildly with great force everywhere.

Soon, Black made a mistake, as she backflipped away from Velvet, she didn't get far enough from her, resulting in Velvet getting a hit in on her leg, causing Black to land and stumble back, giving Velvet a good opportunity to attack her, a chance she took wholeheartedly, landing multiple slashes on Black, releasing sparks everywhere she was struck and throwing her back into a wall.

"Arrrgh… Velvet, please listen…"

"You let Cardin and his gang get away, I WON'T FORGIVE YOU FOR THIS!" Velvet said as she raised her Gambol Shroud copy, preparing to end it right there.

She won't get the chance to do so, however, as large-calibre rifle rounds struck Velvet's Gambol Shroud, shattering it, before more shots came in before Velvet could react, knocking her back into a wall, knocking her out. Looking to the side for the source of the shots, she saw Aura Red holding up Crescent Rose in rifle form, along with White and Yellow, ready to fight.

Black was somewhat astonished, "Guys? I thought I said I'd handle this alone?"

Red smiled behind her helmet, "Yeah, but we were kinda worried about you, and we couldn't leave you in the lurch, right?"

"We understand that you feel that this is you alone should carry this burden, but I can't just stand around and see you do so! We'll help each other carry their burdens, isn't that what a friend does?" Yellow continued on from Red.

Black shook her head, but privately admitted to herself that running off on her own like that was a risky move, "So, what do we do next?"

Red spoke next, "Ok, Black, you'll stay behind, the rest of us will buy you some time, and give you a chance to talk to Velvet. Got it?"

Black was somewhat surprised, "What? You're pulling your punches? You aren't afraid that she could hurt you all?"

Yellow put her hands on Black's shoulders, "Black, we understand how you feel, and trust that you have the right words to talk to Velvet. As such, we're counting on you to end this, ok?"

Black nodded, smiling inwardly.

However, the Rangers had little time, as they heard Velvet groaning as she got up from the previous attack.

Red piped up, "Ready, Rangers?" The rest of the Rangers nodded in response.

"Swift Justice! Aura Red!" Aura Red gave a thumbs up.

"Cooling Calm! Aura White!" Aura White gave a polite bow.

"Silent Shadows, Aura Black!" Aura Black lowered herself in a crouch, with her legs spread and one hand on the ground.

"BURNING PASSION! Auuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrra Yellow!" Aura Yellow bent over a little, clenching her fist hard, before thrusting it up high in a fistpump.

"AURA RANGERS, READY!"

Velvet got back up and came at them with full force, but the Rangers were prepared for her. Red and White fired off Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster with electric Dust respectively. Thinking quickly, Yellow started to take the cabinets lining the walls to throw them onto the ground. The end result was that the bullets and electric bolts limited Velvet's movement, while the collapsed cabinets in her way prevented her from moving forward. Infuriated, she started to shove the wall of cabinets down, trying to get at the Rangers, while Yellow was pushing back barring her from doing so.

Yellow turned to Black, and started to speak, "What are you waiting for? Talk to her!"

Mentally preparing herself, Black started to speak.

"Velvet, please, stop this! You're losing control of who you are!"

"How would you know who I am, huh?" Velvet screamed out, grunting as she pushed against the wall of cabinets.

"I thought that you wanted to defend those that couldn't defend themselves? What you're doing is not defending at all!"

"Sh-shut up!"

"You know, Cardin was right, you're thrashing about, like a wild animal, is that what you want to be? You're just proving that Cardin was right about you!"

Velvet pushed harder, "I said, stop it!"

"Holding a grudge like that against someone isn't healthy, look at you now, trying to kill someone for 'justice'? He may have been a jerk, but whatever that bug did, it has changed you."

Velvet didn't even say anything in response, just giving a primal cry as she pushed.

"And most of all? I'm sorry."

Upon hearing those words, Velvet's eyes widened, and she stopped pushing so hard, "W-what?"

Black continued, "I'm sorry that I couldn't stop you from doing this. If I had acted sooner and morphed earlier, maybe I could have stopped this from happening. So please, stop this. Not just for my own sake, but for yours as well. "

Velvet was surprised, "B-Blake?"

Black gave a grunt of agreement, "I've known you for only a short time, but all I've seen points to you being a gentle soul. Would you be able to live with yourself if you did anything _permanent_ to Cardin and his friends?"

Velvet's voice started to break up, "But-but what do I do about them then?"

Black continued on, "I don't really know myself, but I know a friend can help out in easing the pain. After all, you seemed truly happy when I was talking with you, weren't you?"

"I was…"

"Then let me help you, please." Black replied.

Velvet went silent, filling the air with tension as the Rangers wondered what she was doing, until she could be heard struggling against something behind the barricade.

Black got Yellow to take down the barricade, revealing Velvet kneeling down on the ground, trying to rip off the bug that was currently attached to her back, feeding off her anger.

With a great yell, she managed to tear it off, throwing it up into the air where Black delivered a decisive killing blow on it with Gambol Shroud, slicing it in half, dropping onto the ground, dead.

The vortex of energy swirled around Velvet again, only when it dissipated, it revealed Velvet, back to normal, though her face carried an expression of extreme exhaustion.

Before Velvet could collapse, Black rushed up to Velvet, giving her a hug, lowering her down gently.

Before she lost consciousness, Velvet said a soft "Thank you" into Blake's ear.

Before any of the Rangers could rest though, the remains of the bug started to give off a menacing aura. In a split second, it exploded, releasing a large amount of negative energy out of the stadium and creating a giant rift, releasing another Goliath-class Beowolf, now with more bone plating on its torso and arms and two spikes growing from its mask resembling a rabbit's ears. Additionally, it's legs were stockier, carrying more muscle in them.

Knowing what to do, the Rangers rushed out of the stadium, where the people evacuating the stadium quickly vacated the area upon seeing the giant Beowolf towering over them. The Rangers held up their Aura Changers and activated them.

" **Aura Zord, Activate!"**

In just 0.05 seconds they were in their Zord forms, facing the Goliath-class.

"Rose Aura Zord, ready!"

"Frost Aura Zord, ready!"

"Shadow Aura Zord, ready!"

"Blaze Aura Zord, ready!"

Ready for battle, they stood their ground, trying to keep distance from the Goliath-class, worried that it may have inherited Velvet's weapon copying abilities, with Red and Yellow shielding White and Black as White pelted the Goliath-class with energy blasts, while Black used her whip's long reach to her advantage.

The Goliath-class wasn't content with taking a beating like a bullied student, and proceeded to use its stronger legs to leap up, landing on Yellow, using its weight to knock her down onto an empty street while grabbing her arms and copying her gauntlets. It then proceeded to spin around, knocking down most of the Zords, except Black, who evaded with agile grace, landing between a couple of houses.

Knowing that a prolonged battle could mean a distinct lack of proper infrastructure and plummeting property prices in the area, Black needed to finish this fast or prevent the Goliath-class from moving. Looking at her whip, she decided on the latter, slinging the whip and wrapping it around the Goliath-class, before the shadowy whip merged together to create a tight bond, binding the Goliath-class.

Getting back up, the rest of the Zords proceeded to either pummel it with blows from gauntlets and sickles or pelting it with energy blasts, with the Goliath-class unable to do anything.

Now weakened, Yellow realized what Black was trying to do, and leapt up into the sky, briefly covering the sun over the Goliath-class, before pointing downwards and descending, with her right gauntlet pointed straight at the Goliath-class, ready to bash its face in.

" **Blazing Sun Crusher!"**

Using her Aura to bear the force of the shockwave and focus in on the Goliath-class, Yellow created a massive explosion focused on a small area no larger than a small house, tearing right through the Goliath-class, destroying it in and causing it to explode in short order.

"Grimm, hunted!"

* * *

Blake was exhausted. She basically spent the last two days constantly awake, worrying about Velvet, and fighting her as well. That didn't stop Blake from visiting her at the nearby hospital, where she was being treated for her injuries from the fight against the Rangers, as well as extreme exhaustion from overexerting herself.

Velvet had a look of absolute shame on her face, "I… I can't believe all these thoughts were running through my head… I just wanted to stand up to him, but it went way beyond that…"

Blake sat there, with a warm smile on her face, comforting her, "It's alright, you don't have to worry about it anymore. We'll beat the Black Queen, and stop her from doing anything like that to anyone again."

Velvet wasn't really perked up by that, "Speaking about that… why did you lie to the authorities? You said that I fought back and got injured in return…"

"But you did. You realized what was happening to you, and you fought back against it." Blake replied.

Velvet's expression lightened up a bit, "I guess so… but what about Cardin? He knew about what happened."

"I wouldn't worry about him. After all, it's his word against the word of the people who saved the city, right? Besides, his bullying of you seems hardly like a secret, so he has that against him as well." Blake confidently replied.

"I see… thank you, Blake." Velvet responded, giving a smile to Blake.

Blake smiled back and gave her a nod of silent understanding, before walking out of the room, returning to the Rangers' room.

Leaving the room, Blake's eyes caught a mass of yellow by the left corner of her vision. Looking to the left, she saw Yang leaning on the wall, waiting for her.

"So, how did your conversation between you two work out?" Yang asked.

"Just fine. Thanks Yang, for trusting my judgement. I appreciate it."

Yang gave a great big grin in response to that, "You know, stoic, silent types like you have always kinda annoyed me."

"Huh?" Blake was confused.

"Not because you anger me or anything, but it's just that it's so much more difficult to get a gauge on people like you, and as such, much more difficult to befriend." Yang continued.

"…"

"But, seeing you against Velvet earlier today… I saw a glimpse into the real you, didn't I?"

"What?"

"Even if she was going to beat you up, you tried to get to her. Past the cold indifference, you're the kind that makes few friends, but holds them tight to yourself, and never lets them go, right?"

Blake was stunned at Yang's words, "I-I mean, you could say that…"

Yang placed her hands on Blake's shoulders, "Well, that's the kind of friend I'd want! You aren't going to get cooped up in your corner tonight, you're coming with me!"

Blake did a double take, "W-what?! Coming with you where?"

Yang's grin grew into a full grown smile, "To hang out with me, of course! Ruby and Weiss are busy, so I'm all the company you're probably going to get now. Let's get going! I've heard that there's a new nightclub in town, we gotta check it out!"

"I'm not one for loud places Yang, I've never even been to a nightclub before!"

"You'll never know if you like something or not without trying it out! Besides, if you don't like it we can go anywhere else you like, ok?"

" _Maybe I should give her a chance as well…"_ Blake thought. Giving a small smile, she nodded, "Alright Yang, I'll go out with you at least this once."

"There! You actually smiled for me! Not a big one, but we're just starting out anyway. Wonderful! Let's go!" Yang said, walking as she draped her arm over Blake's shoulder.

* * *

Back at Beacon, Ruby and Weiss were walking down the courtyard, discussing the implications of Velvet's turning.

"Turning people into Grimm… what a scary thought." Ruby said, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Indeed… But think about it this way, unlike the Grimm created from random objects, once we discern their identities, we might be able to identify their motivations and predict their potential actions." Weiss said, with an index finger to her forehead, thinking about the situation.

"You seem rather surprisingly unconcerned with the fact that potentially _anyone_ could be inflicted with the same fate as Velvet." Ruby replied, with a little more bite to her voice.

"No Ruby! It's not that, I'm just trying to find ways to combat them-" Weiss would have finished, had she not crashed into a girl taller than either Ruby or herself, knocking both down to the ground.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I was just too busy thinking about things that I wasn't looking ahead! Please, let me help you up!" The girl said, completely flustered.

Hey! Watch where you're going, you could hurt someone like that!" Weiss said, annoyed at being knocked down by another girl. Again.

"Don't worry, Weiss is hardier that her small size would imply." Ruby said, with a somewhat cheeky smile on her face.

"Hey!"

"O-oh, ok. I'm still really sorry about that though."

Ruby gave a warm smile back, "Hey, it's alright uhh…"

The girl, still on the ground, looked up at Ruby's face, "Cinder Fall."

 _Having faced a new threat from the Grimm, the team is unsure of things to come, while Blake starts to accept her own place in the team…_

 _Aura Rangers Hunt 3… ends here!_

 _A/N: Why yes, I did watch Kamen Rider Fourze._

 _Additionally, to answer_ _54's question, yeah, I basically pick elements from different series and fit them into the story. For example, the Zords here were based on the Shogunzords/Giant Beast Generals from MMPR S2 and Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, being multiple humanoid robots/giant forms._

 _The Grimm are more of a mix of Rita/Zed's make a monster out of an object and the Zodiarts and Dopants from Kamen Rider Fourze and Double respectively, with people using the power and getting corrupted by them._

 _The Black Queen's method of communicating with Salem as well as the Grimm's sealing were based of Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters, the Sentai that never got a chance at a Ranger series, where Messiah was sealed in a subdimension for much of the series, while his will was carried out by an agent outside, Enter._

 _There will be more of such influences later down the line. Thanks for reading!_


	4. Hunt 4: A Sticky Situation

*Thwoomp!* A tennis ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on a long, thin blade.

*Thwoomp!* another ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on the long, thin blade as well, pushing the previous ball back.

*Thwoomp!* this ball flies out a little harder, seemingly out of vengeance for its fallen brethren.

*Krrk* it failed as the long, thin blade pierced through it, now creating a kebab of tennis balls on the blade.

" _Excellent. My accuracy is improving."_ Weiss thought to herself, as she pushed the skewered tennis balls off Myrtenaster, before walking up to the ball launcher she set in the Command Centre, looking to set it to launch balls faster.

*Thwoomp!* *Thwoomp!* *Thwoomp!* the balls come out flying faster this time, just merely a second between each launch.

*Krrk!* *Krrk!* *Krrk!* Weiss intercepted each ball with flawless accuracy. Feeling a little proud of herself, she did a quick twirl with Myrtenaster before preparing to intercept the next ball…

"I BURN! CAN'T HOLD ME NOW, YOU GOT NOTHING THAT CAN STOP ME. I BURN! SWING ALL YOU WANT. LIKE A FEVER I WILL TAKE YOU DOWN."

"Woah!" the sudden burst of noise surprised Weiss, causing her to lose her balance, missing the ball, which smacked into her face, bruising the white as snow skin on her face.

The launcher, lacking any thought processes of any sort, couldn't decide to stop pelting the heiress with its balls, and continued to do so, knocking Weiss onto the ground, still launching more balls until it finally expended its ammunition of somewhat fuzzy pain.

Turning around, she saw Yang, who up till then was just observing her and listening to some song about 'super sayins' and 'humen torches' or something. At least, she was _supposedly_ using her headphones. She could still hear that song playing audibly out of something. Upon closer inspection, she realised that the song was still coming out of her _headphones_ , just turned up to an incredibly loud volume.

"Yang! Yang!" Weiss tried to get to Yang, but those infernal headphones were sealing Yang in her own world of badassery, immune to Weiss's harping. That is, until Weiss took things into her own hands, literally as she ripped the headphones off Yang's ears and turned the volume down.

"Yang! Are you trying to deafen yourself?! I could hear your song even with the headphones on!"

Yang seemed irritated for a brief moment, before returning to her regular jovial expression, "Well, just a few minutes ago, I would have agreed with you, but I realised something! You know how Aura acts like a force field, protecting us from physical harm?" Weiss nodded at that, "Well, I just found out that it also covers our eardrums! I was trying to see how loud I can go now, until you rudely interrupted me. What gives?"

"Your little 'experiment' made me lose my focus. You see these bruises?" Weiss rolled up her sleeves and gestured to herself, especially her face, normally a pearly white, now with an obvious red spot on her cheek.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Set the launcher too high, huh?" Yang said with a big, sheepish grin, "What were you even trying to accomplish damaging school property over and over again anyway? I know the Headmaster has a lot of money, but I think he'd prefer not to burn it away like that."

Weiss frowned at what she saw as ignorance from Yang, "For your information, my 'damaging school property' was practice. I'm training to be more precise with Myrtenaster. After all, practice makes perfect. Oh, and I did ask the Headmaster for permission. After all, I can afford it."

Yang snorted a little, "Pfft, practice? Just rote repetition like that won't get you far in actual battle. You need flexibility."

Weiss was not really amused, "Really? Like you should be lecturing me? Your lack of discipline and control led to you wrecking that nightclub you went to, right? The Headmaster wasn't too pleased at having to foot the bill there."

"Hey! I was going to leave with Blake all easy and quiet, then someone had to make a move on her. Everything else was just them escalating the conflict."

"That _you_ started. Point is, you're too undisciplined to lecture me on this. At least Ruby can get pretty driven when she needs to. Maybe _you_ should try training your technique instead of generally lazing around, hmm? Even the dolt- I mean, Ruby spends some time training with me, and I've see Blake doing so as well!"

Yang stretched her arms out, before putting her hands behind her head, "Nah, punching is fine for the most part, and besides, I train through other ways."

"Lying around, or joyriding in that bike of yours?"

Yang's expression shifted from her originally relaxed stance to aggressively pointing her finger at Weiss, "Hey! Bumblebee the Bike is a work of _art_ , and I'll not stand for you just calling it a 'bike'! Arrgh, this isn't going anywhere, I'm out of here." Yang said as she walked towards the exit elevator, putting her headphones, playing another song on equally loud.

Weiss couldn't be more pleased with that, "Thank you! Now I need an ice pack. Where can I find one…"

* * *

 _Long ago, the Creatures of Grimm threatened mankind, but they were sealed away, leaving mankind at peace. However, the Creatures of Grimm have returned, and four youths have unlocked the power of their souls, called 'Aura' to fight against them._

 _They are the…_

 **Aura Rangers!**

 **Hunt 4: A Sticky Situation**

Across the magnificent and somewhat oversized hallways of Beacon Academy, Ruby was just walking along, wanting to get back to the dorms for some rest, only to come across a familiar raven haired figure.

"Cinder?" Ruby asked. The girl turned around, showing her gold eyes, answering Ruby's question.

"Oh, Ruby? Uh, nice to see you!"

"Good to see you, um, where are you going?"

"The Northern Dormitories," Cinder replied.

"Huh, I'm going there too! Um, wanna come with?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, er, sure!" Cinder nodded, giving a smile.

Despite the presence that Cinder carried around with her appearance, it was scaled back from her behaviour, always looking down, shy and unsure of herself. With her not really speaking up, Ruby felt the _greatest_ sense of awkwardness about it.

" _Oh please, say something, please…"_

"So… where did you come from? Beacon has students from all over the world, after all."

" _Thank you!"_

"Well, just west of Vale, a nice but kinda boring place, come to think of it. What about you?"

"Oh, uhh… further from here, from the city of Mistral."

"Mistral, huh? What about your family? It can't have been easy to leave them to come all this way to study."

Suddenly, Cinder's hands clenched up into fists, "Nrrgh… my family… is gone."

"…!" Ruby's eyes widened, looking straight at Cinder's eyes, "I… I'm sorry, I didn't mean to drag those memories back up."

"It's ok, I'm fine."

Ruby's eyes looked up into the air for a moment, "I know how you feel…"

Ruby held onto Cinder's hand, with a comforting smile on her face, "If there's anything you need help, don't hesitate to call me!"

*Buzz! Buzz!*

Ruby stiffened, feeling her Aura Changer going off, indicating a Grimm attack, "I'm sorry Cinder, but I remembered I've got something urgent to attend to. Seeya!" She said as she proceeded to run off into the distance.

While others around Cinder just found it a little odd that Ruby would just 'remember' something apparently so urgent, they paid little heed. Cinder however, kept staring at her right wrist instead…

* * *

It was a noisy Saturday afternoon at Vale's shopping district, with people bustling about with bags full of all kinds of stuff, chatting to one another about all kinds of stuff, from fashion trends, to how this year's lineup of toys in their favourite merchandise driven franchise compared to last year.

At least, that is usually the case. This time, it was noisy for a completely different reason, for a skinny beast with weirdly massive shoulders covered in some white material with an orange cone for a snout of sorts came walking through the street along with Beowolves and Boarbatusks, causing a massive pileup of cars as the drivers rushed out screaming for help along with the pedestrians running away, clearing the area.

Fortunately, their cries for help will not go unanswered, as four colour-coded teenagers ran out to face the Grimm.

Yang was the first to speak, "Ewww, what are you covered in? Is that…"

The monster, despite having an inflexible face, mostly taken up by the orange cone, was clearly offended, "How dare you insinuate such things about me, Glugorm?"

"Glugorm…? Oh thank goodness."

Ruby butt in loudly, trying to erase the previous exchange as much as possible, "ANYWAY, we're here to stop your rampage! Ready girls?"

"Aura Form, Change!"

In a flash of light, the Aura Rangers were suited up and ready to go.

"Swift Justice! Aura Red!" Aura Red gave a thumbs up.

"Cooling Calm! Aura White!" Aura White gave a polite bow.

"Silent Shadows, Aura Black!" Aura Black lowered herself in a crouch, with her legs spread and one hand on the ground.

"BURNING PASSION! Auuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrra Yellow!" Aura Yellow bent over a little, clenching her fist hard, before thrusting it up high in a fistpump.

"AURA RANGERS, READY!"

*BOOM*

Having morphed, the Rangers readied their weapons and rushed towards the crowd of Beowolves and Boarbatusks, cutting a swath through them as their lack of coordination was no match for the Rangers who under Red's commands, either stayed close up or apart from the Grimm to deal maximum damage.

Irritated at the uselessness of his minions, Glugorm decided that some direction may help out, "Divide and conquer! Split them up!"

Heeding his orders, the Boarbatusks started to roll around Red and Black and Beowolves started to pounce on them, cutting them off from White and Yellow, whom Glugorm decided to face on his own.

Yellow, predictably moved forward onto punching range, dealing hits as she adapted to Glugorm's odd size and shape, directing her punches towards his massive shoulders instead of his skinny waist.

White stayed back, loading Fire Dust into Myrtenaster and striking from afar with great precision, dealing the hurt on Glugorm.

However, this was not to last, as while White continued to strike at Glugorm, Yellow looked at the trees that bordered the roads, she got a bright idea, smacking Glugorm in the face, dazing him before getting a running start up a tree, then jumping off and backflipping and sitting onto Glugorm's head, the excess weight knocking him down, allowing Yellow to pummel him.

However, White was in the process of firing another fire bolt at Glugorm, and Yellow knocking him down caused the bolt to fly literally right above Yellow's head, and sailing right to the next tree near them, tearing right through it.

With a great big hole in its trunk, the tree has no choice but to fall down – on Yellow. White, panicking, quickly slotted in a canister of Accel Dust into Myrtenaster and triggered, creating a glyph shaped like a speedometer on the ground that accelerated her movements, rushing towards Yellow and dragging her off the pathway of the tree and onto the sidewalk.

Glugorm rolled out of the way, and upon seeing White still grabbing onto Yellow's arm, decided to take advantage of the situation.

"This should help with your lack of coordination!" he said as he launched a glob of white, sticky stuff on White and Yellow's wrist, before congealing into a tough, rubbery substance, handcuffing them together.

"WHAT?!" both Yellow and White Yelled out as they both tried to point their weapons toward Glugorm to fire on him, only for him to launch another gluey glob onto their other wrists, restraining both of them onto the other.

Yellow and White cooked at their wrists, seeing the glue cuffs covering their wrists, thankfully not completely engulfing the Aura Changers, knew that it was trouble immediately.

Yellow tried to move forward towards Glugorm, only to be met by swift resistance from behind her, as White was trying to move backwards to a more advantageous position.

"What did you do to us, you freak?!" Yellow yelled out.

"Oh, isn't it obvious? I've seen that the both of you clearly don't mesh well together, so I've taken it upon myself to teach you two a lesson on that, preferably one that you don't survive!" Before either of them knew it, Glugorm was up in their faces, punching them both in equal measure.

Yellow tried to punch him with her right hand, but White struggled against her, trying to use Myrtenaster held in her own left hand, but being bound facing each other only made that much more disorientating for both of them, giving Glugorm even more opportunities to strike them.

Before Yellow could get upset though, a red blur flew across Glugorm, striking him and turning him around, face to face with Black. Naturally, he tried to punch her, only for Black to fade away, its true nature revealed while Black struck him in the back multiple times, driving him away from the bound Yellow and White.

"Ohh… that smarts! Staying here any further is risky!" Glugorm tried to make a run for it.

Red, realising his intentions, zoomed quickly towards him, only for Glugorm to turn around and launch another glob of glue on Red, splattering across her right shoulder and torso, throwing her off balance and somewhat restricting her movement.

"Oof! Nargh! Ow!" said Red as she fell and started rolling across the pavement. Upon getting up, she scanned the area, but couldn't find Glugorm anywhere, only the rest of the Rangers, as well as the dissolving corpses of the Beowolves and Boarbatusks left behind.

* * *

Upon finding out that Weiss and Yang couldn't teleport after Glugorm's attack on them, the Rangers elected to walk back the Beacon together. However, even with Ruby and Blake supporting them, the trip back could charitably be called 'eventful', as the air was filled with Weiss and Yang's bickering among each other about whose fault it was about getting cuffed together like that, as well as the numerous times they tripped and fell, even on each other, eliciting blushes, giggles and taunts about their 'sizes'.

Finally making it to Beacon, the Rangers boarded the elevator masked by a perception filter down to the Command Centre, hoping that there's a way to deal with their predicament.

"Ready?" Ruby said as she raised Crescent Rose, ready to strike.

"Go!" The scythe swung down… and bounced off the glue cuffs on Weiss and Yang.

"D'oh!" Ruby cried out as Crescent Rose's large weight worked against her, and threw her off her feet as it bounced off the glue cuffs, landing on her butt.

Blake tried the same, only for the cuffs to continue resisting all attempts of break it. Even using Myrtenaster to cut it didn't work, as it only punctured it, while any further attempts to cut it still failed.

"Oh come on! Can't anything break us free?!" Yang yelled out, now really nettled with her predicament.

"Hey! It was you fault for trying a stunt like that *without* alerting me! Have more awareness of your surroundings!" Weiss said back.

"You should have seen it coming! Glugorm was a little too large to knock down, so I took advantage of the scenery, simple as that!"

"Not everyone can see the world as you do, and I'm grateful for that. Besides, you made me use up a precious vial of Accel Dust as well. This stuff doesn't grow on trees!"

"Ugh, whatever!" Yang wasn't interested in continuing.

Ozpin, who was using some strange looking tool to analyse the glue cuffs, sensed that things had cooled down, if just a little, and cut into their conversation.

"Well Weiss, Yang, the good news is that the Aura Changers are still intact and functioning mostly properly, the problem is that some of the glue has seeped in through the casing and clogged the vial of Zone Dust that allows for teleportation.

Weiss spoke up, "Wait, how did you get… nevermind, is there any way to get rid of these cuffs? I can't stand another moment being so close to Yang!"

Yang snorted a little, "Heh, maybe more like jealous…"

Weiss's cheeks lit up just a little, "Hey! Get your mind out of the gutter!"

Ozpin cut in, "Well, on first glance, the glue has simply solidified and should be easy to cut, but I've detected plenty of negative energy in these cuffs, constantly supplied by Glugorm. It seems that defeating him is the best way to get these cut. Just trying to slice them outright seems more likely to end up in hilarity rather than actual success."

Ruby thought on that for a while, "Wait, constantly supplied by Glugorm? Does that mean that we can track the negative energy coming from him into the glue back to him?"

Ozpin gave a small smile at that, "Wonderful thinking Ruby, by using the chunk of glue stuck to you, you should be able to do that. Here, take this," he passed the device to Ruby, "use it to track him down with Blake. Mind you, Glugorm could be anywhere in the city now, so it could take a while to locate him. Meanwhile, Weiss, Yang, stay around Beacon. I'd rather you two not risk yourselves beyond amusing incidents."

"Understood, headmaster!" Ruby and Blake moved out.

Ozpin looked to Weiss and Yang, "Good. Now I have to go, Beacon doesn't run itself you know," exiting the Command Centre and leaving Weiss and Yang alone.

Turning to each other, Weiss had only two words for their situation.

"Oh no…"

Yang however…

"Hey Weiss, I guess we'd better make the best of this _sticky situation_ , huh?" complete with large, goofy smile.

Weiss realised the true depth of horror that she was going to face.

" _Oh no…"_

* * *

After a couple torturous hours of Yang's glue puns, definitely aimed at needling her, if Yang's grin was any indication, Weiss has had it.

Yang started to talk again, "Hey Weiss…"

" _Wait a minute, I'm tied to her! What am I doing just sitting here?"_ Weiss proceeded to put her arms to work, twisting Yang's left hand and restraining it behind her, along with pulling her other arm around her neck, putting her in great pain.

"Ow, ow, ow! Stop that Ice Queen!" Yang struggled against Weiss, but in her pain, she couldn't muster up the strength to break free.

"Stop calling be that! I'll only let go if you stop torturing me with your terrible puns!" Weiss said as she pulled a little harder."

"OW! Okay, okay! Just stop!"

"Good. Now let's just sit here and wait…"

 _*growl…*_

Weiss blushed a little, realising that the sound came from her stomach, "Or maybe, we try to get to the cafeteria to get a bite, alright?"

"Errgh, sure. But I'm pretty sure we'd move faster if you'd release me! Ow!"

"O-oh, right," Weiss let of Yang, though that didn't stop her from complaining about the rough treatment.

* * *

"Left, right, left, right, woah!"

"Come on Weiss, keep up!"

"Take it slower! Rushing is just going to make us trip again!"

"Because of you."

"Hrmm…"

Weiss and Yang trying to get from the Command Centre to the cafeteria proved to be a challenge, with both of them still not exactly coordinating properly for move in unison. However, Weiss went from complaining about her situation to trying to get Yang to move in unison with her to prevent tripping.

Making matters worse, Beacon was busy and lively with students at that particular hour, leading to many staring eyes at Weiss and Yang being bound together like that.

"What do you think is going on…"

"What is this, a club bonding exercise?"

"I know that Beacon is a 'be yourself' kind of place, but still…"

Cardin, being a judgemental jerk, decided to butt in with his opinion.

"Huh. You two having a lover's spat or something-" He tried to finish, only for Yang to 'accidentally' butt in as well, literally. This sent Cardin crashing face first into a nearby wall.

"Oof! Ow, come on!" Cardin yelled as he rubbed his aching cheek.

Yang, annoyed at the prying eyes, looked around for a solution, her eyes landing on a particular person within the crowd with her face covered by a book, with her only a sliver of green from her eyes visible.

Recognising her, Yang yelled out to the students around them, pointing towards the girl.

"Hey, is that Pyrrha Nikos over there?"

Suddenly, the crowd quietened down, their eyes focused on the redheaded girl. Lowering the book, she could only say one thing.

"Uh, hello there?"

The crowd started to gather towards Pyrrha instead, gravitating away from Weiss and Yang, with people attempting to 'impress' her, or asking where she had been, or just getting an autograph, anything.

"Woah, so there's where she went after Mistral." Weiss herself was filling up with adoration for her, only for Yang to tug at her.

"Oh, right, let's get away, at a proper pace this time, ok?"

"Fine, fine, I'll try to follow."

* * *

Walking down an alley, Ruby and Blake continued to follow the trail of negative energy pouring into the glob of glue on Ruby's upper right torso, like a dog following a scent, except with less sniffing around everywhere.

"Phew. It has been hours since we started searching for him. Where could he be?" Ruby said, holding the device around detecting the trail of negative energy.

"You know that we can take a break if you need, right?" Blake cut in.

"What? No! Not when we can do something to stop Glugorm before he harms anyone else."

"Vale is a huge city. I highly doubt that we're going to find him anytime soon. You should take a break first, eat something maybe."

"No! I'm going on."

"But we probably aren't going to find him before he attacks again-" Blake tried to continue.

"Even so, we still have the means to stop him before he hurts anyone else. Even if it's a slim chance, we still have to take it. If not, how can we call ourselves heroes?" Ruby said, her silver eyes shining with determination.

" _*Sigh*_ , I'm not going to change your mind, aren't I?"

"Nope!" Ruby responded with a huge grin reminiscent of Yang's own.

"Call ourselves heroes, huh…" Blake muttered under her breath, before facing Ruby, "Ok then, Ruby." Blake started to walk away from Ruby.

"You're still going? Fine! Go! I'll just search for Glugorm myself! Hmph!" Ruby yelled out in frustration.

Continuing the search by herself, Ruby went on for the next half an hour, but just as she was walking down an another alleyway, before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Huh wha-" Ruby could barely get a word out before froze in shock. Realizing that nothing was happening, she turned around, only to see Blake standing there, holding out a packet in her hand.

"You're back? I thought you gave up?"

Blake looked mildly offended at Ruby's assumption, "I didn't give up. I just went to get something for you, since you clearly won't be getting any for yourself."

"Oh-oh, thank you." Ruby stammered out, taking the packet and peering inside, "Strawberry chip cookies? My favourite! Thanks Blake!"

"Hm, think nothing of it." Blake replied, with a small smile on her face.

* * *

Finally, the sun had set, but with a slow and controlled walk coordinated by Weiss, both her and Yang managed to get to the cafeteria, located in a massive hall that would make anyone feel positively tiny. It was mostly empty, except for the cook/vendor there, some old, balding man with hair that flared out, as well as constantly shut eyes.

Slowly and carefully walking up to him, Yang slammed her and Weiss's hand on the counter to get his attention.

"Hey! A roast chicken for me!"

"And a tiramisu for me."

The cook raised his eyebrows without opening his eyes at the sight before him, but didn't raise a word about their condition, opting to just bring them their food.

Sitting down at a table, they tried to eat their food, only for the fact that Weiss was left-handed and Yang was right handed kinda get in the way.

"Let me go first, Ice Queen."

"Only if you stop calling me that."

"Eh, I'll probably still call you that out of habit you know."

"True, true. So the answer is no."

"Alright then, then you force me to do _this_!"

Opening her mouth wide, Yang smashed her face into the chicken, munching on it just using her mouth and going "OMNOMNOMNOMNOM", probably just to irritate Weiss even more.

"Alright! Stop it! I'll let you go-" before she could finish her sentence though…

 _*Buzz! Buzz!*_

After a brief struggle, they managed to activate their Aura Changers, connecting them to Ruby and Blake.

"Guys! We've _*munch*_ found _*munch*_ Glugorm! Stay put, me and Blake will take care of him!" Ruby said, munching on the cookie that Blake bought, while Blake herself was viciously tearing into a grilled tuna like a ravenous beast, defiling the poor tuna in ways that few wish on anything.

The area that Glugorm was hiding in was a riverside area, lined with rustic old buildings that were preserved and then renovated to hold modern pubs, restaurants and the like, covering the whole place in bright lights, music and delicious smells, becoming a trendy place for people to go.

Glugorm himself was hiding in a dumpster, squeezing his tall figure into the dumpster somewhat painfully, waiting for the right time to strike.

"Hmm… I've recovered back to full strength, good. Come out, Beowolves!" Glugorm yelled out.

However, before he could summon any Beowolves, Crescent Rose came flying out, spinning and shearing the dumpster he was in in half, scaring him greatly.

Before him stood Aura Red and Black, standing at the ready, as Crescent Rose returned back to Red's hand.

"Hold it! You're not going any further, Glugorm!" Red said, crouching into an attacking stance with Crescent Rose. Facing the civilians around them, she yelled at them to run off, scattering them and clearing the area for the fight about to happen.

"Well, I'd like to see you try, Beowolves!" Glugorm shot back, summoning a bunch of Beowolves in front of him.

"Let's go!" Red yelled as she sped into the mass of Beowolves, giving them an alluring, flashy target with her massive scythe cutting through swathes of them, while Black snuck behind the distracted Beowolves, stabbing them in the back if they got too close to Red.

Bit by bit, the Beowolves were worn down, but Glugorm wasn't just sitting there twiddling his thumbs, just waiting.

"Hmm… there!" He waited, until he saw Black getting up on the final Beowolf, which was facing away from him and as such, leaving her back wide open. He opened fire from his nosecone, hitting Black right on the back and engulfing her in a glob of glue.

"Uh… whaa!" Black fell off the Beowolf, losing balance. She tried to get up again, only for Glugorm to push his advantage and splatter even more glue on her, rendering her onto the ground.

"Black!" Red yelled out, cutting through the final Beowolf, and speeding off towards her. However, the glob of glue still on her slowed her down just enough for Glugorm to fine up a good shot on her, sticking her onto the ground helpless.

"Nngh… nargh!" Red tried to struggle from her bonds, but to no avail.

"Now, you're mine!" Glugorm said, as he continued to blast at Red and Black, smothering them except their heads completely.

* * *

Hearing the anguished cries from Red and Black through their Aura Changers, Weiss and Yang's faces paled.

"We're going _now_." Yang said, her voice not particularly loud, but her words still struck like a force of a tsunami to Weiss.

However, Weiss was hesitant, "Not yet! Are you even sure we can beat Glugorm in our state now?"

"We _will_." Yang's response was short, curt and still hit incredibly hard.

Weiss gave a sigh, "you're right, we have to. But we can't even teleport now, how are we supposed to reach them?

"I know one way."

Without even waiting for Weiss's response Yang proceeded to twist around her bonds, resulting in her and Weiss's backs facing each other, and used her upper body strength to lift up Weiss, carrying the stunned and flustered heiress up towards Beacon's carpark.

* * *

 ***VROOM!***

The loud roar of a powerful bike engine sounded out across the streets, as Yang rode Bumblebee down the road leading out from Beacon, rushing out with little care for traffic rules.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Weiss cared little for fast bikes, especially since she was being strapped to Yang's back in, effectively sitting backwards with her arms stretched out towards her back, tied to Yang's won hands as she gripped on Bumblebee's handlebars tightly.

"Don't worry! You'll be fine!" Yang yelled back through Weiss's screams, as she lifted her right hand up, causing Weiss to scream even harder, activating the Aura Changer on her left, as well as Weiss's own Changer on her right.

"Aura Form, Change!"

Now morphed, Yellow accelerated, zooming through the streets before taking a sharp right into a narrow alleyway.

"NONONONONONONONO!" White vocalised her displeasure.

"Come on, have more faith! I know what I'm doing, after all, you're still alive right? Just open your eyes!"

"NO! I CAN'T BEAR TO LOOK!"

"Trust me!"

Reluctantly opening her eyes, she expected to see her life flashing before her eyes, only to find something else instead.

The beautiful night sky, as well as the streets quickly passing by them as Yellow sped through them skilfully, weaving through vehicles as naturally as a gentle stream split and weaved its way around rocks and the like. Soon, they hit Vale's main business district, still moving as fast as possible around the bright skyscrapers, their lights turning into streaks from the speed Yellow was travelling at.

However, that wasn't what White was really looking at. As she calmed down and felt safe, her eyes fell on the person she was leaning against.

Contrary to her usual happy-go-lucky self, Yellow wasn't rambling about stuff to White, just looking straight ahead. Despite never even turning her head to look for incoming traffic, she seemed to have a complete awareness of everything around her. It didn't feel like she was riding Bumblebee, it felt more like Bumblebee was an _extension_ of Yellow. Even with her helmet on, White felt a completely focused gaze coming from Yellow.

White was speechless, though her mind was not.

" _Woah, her brain is in top gear now…"_

"White?" Yellow was curt in her question.

"Hmm, yes?"

"When we get there, I'm relying on you to help me move faster and more precisely with your skill, ok?"

"What?" White was confused.

"Outside of Bumblebee, I know that I'm not the most disciplined person, so I'm relying on you to help me out with that, alright?"

"Heh, of course. In exchange, I also want you to use your adaptability and creativeness in battle to help me out too. I'm not exactly the most flexible person around, after all."

"Thanks, White."

* * *

 _A few minutes later…_

Glugorm was sitting there waiting, his very presence taunting both Red and Black, who were helpless, being stuck down on the ground by his glue.

Red was defiant, "You won't get away with this!"

Glugorm wasn't particularly impressed, "Oh, defiance in your imminent death? How cute. The only reason I haven't finished you and your silent friend off yet? To lure your yellow and white friends here! Now just wait until I-"

 ***VROOM!* *BOOM!* *BOOM!***

Glugorm couldn't finish his words as a huge mass of metal and horsepower came roaring through the riverside, and flaming gunshots flew right at him, striking with pinpoint accuracy, disorientating him. Before he could recover, Yellow rode Bumblebee up to Glugorm, flipped it around, landing the rear wheel against Glugorm's chest before grinding it against him, launching him back a few meters into a wall, knocking him out.

Red was both overjoyed and panicked, "Guys! You came!"

Yellow and White got off Bumblebee, and carefully strutted towards Red.

"Red! Are you ok?"

"No…" Red uttered out.

"What?! Where? Is anything broken?"

"No! Look out! Behind you!"

" _Hah! Open for me, just like I planned!"_

Glugorm recovered quickly, taking advantage of the fact that Yellow and White will be more likely to check on Red and Black, took aim at them and started to launch multiple globs of glue at them.

Black tried to struggle against her bonds, but it was futile.

The globs came closer and closer, until…

*squelch!* *schwoop!*

White quickly intercepted the glob of glue with Myrtenaster, before allowing Yang to quickly force her arm to swing away, allowing the glob of glue to be thrown off before it could attach and stick itself onto the blade.

"What?!" Glugorm was surprised.

White continued to intercept the globs, while allowing Yellow to fling them off with her superior upper body strength, until there were none at all.

"Hmm, most unfortunate. Fortunately, that's not all I've got!" Glugorm slammed his hands on the ground, causing the manhole covers around White and Yellow to shake, before flying off as glue spurted out of the manholes, threatening to cover their feet and make them a sitting duck.

White slotted some Ice Dust into Myrtenaster, before firing on the glue, trying to make ice platforms on the glue, only for them to get engulfed by the glue instead.

Before White could think of another way, Yellow commandeered White's left arm, pointing Myrtenaster at the nearby slow moving river, and yelling "Fire!". Weiss pulled the trigger with her well-honed reflexes, launching an ice bolt that impacted the surface of the water and froze it, creating a platform of ice.

White, understanding Yellow's intent, followed through, jumping on the platform while firing Myrtenaster over and over again, creating more ice platforms for them to jump on. Quickly, both of them pointed the Myrtenaster and the right Ember Celica at Glugorm, who had made himself a sitting duck, and fired on him repeatedly.

"Oww!" Recoiling in pain, Glugorm tried to direct the glue flood onto the river to overwhelm White and Yellow, but instead of floating on the surface, the glue mixed in with the water, becoming diluted and useless.

Yellow acted quickly, pointing Myrtenaster and getting White to fire it repeatedly around the glued water, creating a perimeter around it and preventing it from spreading any further.

Glugorm was enraged at how his trap was falling apart, and proceeded to shoot out multiple globs of glue at White and Yellow in desperation, but to no avail, as they dodged in sync with each other, hopping on the platforms they created while shooting at him in between.

Soon enough, Glugorm was knocked down, breaking his concentration and stopping the flow of glue, allowing White and Yellow to jump upwards, creating more ice platforms on the ground before landing on the one closest to Glugorm, all in the span of a few seconds.

"What?!" Glugorm was unable to keep up with their movements.

White quickly raided Myrtenaster and proceeded to stab Glugorm multiple times, puncturing his glue hide in several spots, before allowing Yellow to rear up a punch, with White using her arms to direct them on the precise spots that she punctured him, dealing maximum damage as flames filled Glugorm's wounds.

"Oww! Stop that!"

Focusing her Aura into Myrtenaster, White used the rest of the loaded Ice Dust to create a great big ice lance, before Yellow focused her own Aura into Ember Celica, before firing it onto the lance, covering it in swirling flames. White swung up the lance, batting Glugorm up into the air, before pointing it directly at him.

" **Aura Art: Freezerburn Lance!"**

The flames on the lance burned even hotter, firing out in a flaming vortex that engulfed Glugorm, before both White and Yellow thrusted up the lance just as Glugorm fell into its range, impaling him on the burning ice lance.

"Oh no, that lesson worked too well! I'm coming apart!" ***BOOM!***

As Glugorm exploded, all the glue quickly lost their impervious properties, turning into masses of ordinary white glue, allowing the Rangers to easily break out of their bonds.

"That. Was. AWESOME YELLOW!" Red squeed hard at the fight, jumping up and down like a little child having consumed a large bag of tooth-rotting candy.

"Thanks, Yellow." Black said a short but sweet show of gratitude.

"Yeah, I'm awesome like that!" Yellow boasted.

"Hey, what about me?" White cut in, annoyed.

"Oh yeah, you were great too, White!" Red said, still jumping, but less so now.

Their celebrations were short-lived though, as soon enough, a large rift opened up releasing not a gigantic Beowolf, but two gigantic snakes covered in the glue that Glugorm was covered in.

"That's… unexpected." Black said, trying to be as calm as possible.

Their helmets crackled to life with Ozpin's voice, "King Taijitu. They commonly operate in pairs, coordinating and splitting when needed. Looks like spending time in the subdimension gave Salem a sense of humour. Nonetheless, the best option would be to split them, only because they're deadlier paired up together."

"Got it! Let's go Rangers!" Red commanded.

" **Aura Zord, Activate!"**

In a bright flash, they were in their Zord forms.

"Rose Aura Zord, ready!"

"Frost Aura Zord, ready!"

"Shadow Aura Zord, ready!"

"Blaze Aura Zord, ready!"

Quickly, they split into two teams, Red and Black, as well as White and Yellow. They started to fire upon the giant snakes, trying to pull them apart from each other.

However, they weren't stupid. Instead of splitting, they encircled each other, creating a formation where they watched each other's backs, dodging any further gunfire in a synchronized manner.

Red moved in, swinging at one of the Taijitu, while Black leapt up, trying to get it by the back, only for the other Taijitu to quickly react, swinging it's head and batting Black onto a hill, bringing many tears to environmentalists as they saw the needless destruction of trees.

Red herself was doing her best to ward off the Taijitu she was battling, but she wasn't making much progress against it. Yellow put a step forward, about to run in and support her sister.

However, before that, Ozpin cut in.

"Wait. Going in individually isn't a very good idea now. It's time to use another functionality of your powers.

"Wait, what?" White was confused.

"Just say the words 'Aura Form, Combination', trust me."

"Alright, got it! Ready, White?" White nodded in response.

" **Aura From, Combination!"**

"It may tickle a little," Ozpin quickly commented.

"Wait, wha-oooh!" White tried to ask, but was interrupted by her body bending in ways that it really shouldn't, starting with her tiara flying off head before it folded into her torso.

White's feet pointed down, before disconnecting, her arms folded onto her shoulders, while her shoulder cannons lowered, joining with her arm cannons, before they disconnected from her as well. Her torso then attached itself onto Yellow's front, her shoulder jets extending back and mounting themselves on Yellow's shoulders.

Yellow's two gauntlets moved up her forearms, allowing White's legs to mount onto her right arm, while her arms mounted onto Yellow's left. Next, the gauntlet's outer covering lowered around them, creating a combined cannon-gauntlet and spiked gauntlet.

"Wooah, that felt _weird_!" Yellow commented, swaying a bit from the experience.

"You don't know the half of it," White said, dizzy from splitting apart like a toy.

"Ahem, anyway, individuals who have unified their wills and minds can use their Aura to combine, making their power increase exponentially. I have to say, I'm impressed at how smooth your first time was"

"Well, why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Weiss asked.

"To be honest, I wasn't sure that you all were prepared for it before, plus it wasn't really necessary for your previous fights, so I refrained from mentioning it.

"Ok…"

Yang cut in, "Nevermind that. Ruby. Now!" Synchronizing their thoughts, White and Yellow moved towards the twin snakes attacking Red.

The King Taijitu surrounded Red, prompting her to spin around, swinging out her sickles. While she managed to nick them, they weren't slowed down. Instead they started to wrap themselves around Red, covering her in a thick layer of glue and keeping her locked down in a single position.

As this was happening, Black recovered, leaping up to wrap one of the snakes with her whip, swinging it down and slamming it onto the ground. However, that left her open to the other Taijitu, who reared up, ready to attack.

That is, until White and Yellow zoomed in with their jets boosting them across the field, giving a punch right into the attacking snake's face, unloading their cannon arm onto it, tossing out onto the nearby hill.

Both of them turned around, only to see that the Taijitu that Black snared twisted its body and snared Black as well, creating a strange version of tug of war as both of them pulled as hard as possible, trying to last longer than the other.

Black need not endure much more, as White and Yellow strode up to the snake and yanked on it's head, causing it to loosen its grip over Black, allowing her to break free.

White and Yellow proceeded to wrestle with the snake, but it was futile for it as the combined Rangers managed to use their superior strength to hold onto it, before skewering it with their spear arm, lifting it up and throwing it onto an empty field, knocking it out.

Next, Black wrestled with the other Taijitu, locked in a struggle with it, and failing at that, until Red, still capable of moving, albeit slowed, dug her sickles into the snake's back, injuring it and allowing Black to back away from it, before she threw her whip on the Taijitu and ensnared it.

"White! Yellow! Now!" Red yelled, her voice strained from the beatdown the snakes dealt on her.

"Understood!/Got it!" Both White and Yellow said in unison. Using their shoulder jets as a boost, they rushed down a wide street and used their cannon gauntlet to deal a devastating uppercut onto the Taijitu, before firing the cannon, launging it even further up into the air, where it proceeded to fall onto the other Taijitu, which was just recovering from getting knocked out.

"Come on, let's end this!" Yellow said to White, who nodded in response, giving Yellow a strange sensation of nodding to her own words.

" **Freezerburn Piercing Full Burst!"**

Focusing their Aura into their arms, both their spear arm and cannon arm glowed with an awesome power, before letting loose on the King Taijitu, with the spear stretching out a pillar of ice right through one of them, while the cannon fired a condensed stream of fire at full blast at the other, obliterating the both of them in a magnificent pyrotechnics display.

"Grimm, Hunted!" said both Yellow and White in unison, posing behind the explosion.

* * *

 _A week later…_

*Thwoomp!* A tennis ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on Myrtenaster's long, thin blade.

*Thwoomp!* another ball comes flying out.

*Krrk!* the ball gets skewered on the long, thin blade as well, pushing the previous ball back.

*Thwoomp!* this ball flies out a little harder, flying right at Weiss

*Krrk* it failed as the long, thin blade pierced through it, now creating another kebab of tennis balls on the blade.

" _Just as good as before,"_ Weiss thought to herself as more balls got launched out, even faster than before.

*Thwoomp!* the ball came flying out, just as it reached within Weiss's range…

"Mirror, mirror, what's behind you? Save me from the things I see!"

Music, albeit softer than before disrupted her. But before the ball could smash her face again, she quickly flung a hand up, knocking it out of the way, before quickly pinpointing the source of the noise and firing an ice bolt from Myrtenaster at it.

The ice bolt flew quick and true, and within a split second, struck a pair of headphones, knocking them off the wearer's head and sticking it onto a nearby wall.

"Woah. You're getting better." Yang said, a little stunned at the quick reaction.

"Hmph! A Schnee learns quick!" Weiss said, her voice tinged with pride, "Though it's really only reactions like that. I still can't really come up with things like you do."

"Fine by me, Ice Queen." Yang said, before getting up and yawning, "Ahh, I better get to bed now. See ya!"

Weiss was now alone in the Command Centre, though instead of turning the launcher back on, she sat down, whipping out a rectangular device, opening it up, revealing two screens on it.

Upon turning it on, the flashed with all kinds of colours, while Weiss settled her thumbs on the d-pad and face buttons on it.

"Even I have to take a break every now and then. They must never know of this."

 _Having experienced a particularly strange series of events, the Rangers have grown closer, and unlocked a new ability in their fight against the Grimm. However, they will not let up against their resistance…_

 _Aura Rangers Hunt 4… ends here!_

 _Woah, that took longer than I expected. Life in general got in the way, and it isn't going to lighten up anytime soon. Hopefully I'll still find time to work on this though._

 _Also, this episode and Dust names may feel familiar to some, heh._


	5. Special Hunt: National Service - Hiatus

Hello readers! Hope you've been enjoying the story so far!

First and foremost, I deeply apologize for the potentially misleading title, I just really wanted to give it more spice.

Unfortunately, I regret to tell you that Aura Rangers is going on a sort of hiatus for a while.

Why? Well, as a full blooded Singaporean (though everyone who has talked to me disputes that) male, it is now that time of my life, I'm getting enlisted for National Service.

So, for at least the next 9 weeks or so, I'm going to be buckling down and learning how to be a soldier to defend my country in a war that hopefully never happens. As such, my writing speed is going to slow down to an absolute crawl (well, even more than usual). After that, it's going to depend on where I get assigned to.

I'm really sorry for this, but I'll try to write where I can.

Once again, thank you for your support and until my next update, goodbye!


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